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Sandbox / Magnificent Bastard Video Games M To Z

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  • MadWorld:
    • Jack Cayman is a sardonic, mysterious Chaser tasked with finding the mayor's daughter by competing in the Deathwatch games. Armed with nothing but his wits, fists, and a chainsaw wrist, Jack, originally a three-time Deathwatch champion who faked his death and changed his identity, actually agreed to the mission just to take the games down himself. Upon entering, Jack easily wins the sponsor XIII over by proving his skills as a killer. Making his way through the games by killing his opponents in a variety of creative ways using everything at his disposal, Jack refuses to harm innocents, even tricking XIII to make it so that he won't have to hurt them. Willing to go against Amala and basic protocol just to get even with his opponents, Jack has the mayor arrested upon finding out his mission was a fraud, and manages to win the games and triumph over its mastermind Leonardo Fallmont, exposing his vile plans and killing him.
    • "XIII", real name Lord Gesser, is a sponsor for Deathwatch who secretly plots to tear the games down. Having viewed the games as deviating from their history as honorable gladiator matches, XIII pits Jack and the game's director Noa against each other, taking advantage of Jack's prior experience in the games to not only make himself money, but to also fight his way through Noa's defenses. Getting Noa to uncover Jack's true past, XIII afterwards informs Jack about Leo Fallmont's involvement, setting him up as champion to kill both Noa and Leo, thus ending the games for good.
  • Mafia III: John Donovan is an eccentric yet equally ruthless and effective rogue CIA agent with a strong loyalty to both his friends and his country. Assisting his friend and comrade Lincoln Clay in his crusade against Sal Marcano, Donovan provides him with various intel on Marcano's operations and possible allies. After wiretapping most of New Bordeaux and even Marcano and his closest lieutenants, Donovan helps Lincoln devise various assassination methods, including drugging the funeral of Southern Union leader Remy Duvall with LSD, sinking the cruise ship of Lou Marcano and infiltrating and burning down Tommy Marcano's boxing ring. Teaming up with Lincoln to stop his traitorous comrade Alridge from selling a nuclear missile in hopes of destroying America, Donovan proves himself as a highly skilled gunfighter who can keep up with Lincoln himself. Having set up an alliance with Marcano's three biggest rivals, Donovan advises Lincoln to kill them once Marcano is dead, reasoning that one of them will eventually do the same to him. Hauled before a senate hearing for his involvement in Marcano's death, Donovan proudly confesses before revealing the head senator as a conspirator in John F. Kennedy's assassination alongside Marcano. Killing the senator while warning his allies that they are next, Donovan escapes the building as the only major criminal to escape justice in every ending.
  • Manhunt: James Earl Cash himself committed an unknown crime that landed him on death row. A callous, nearly emotionless killing machine, Cash is "rescued" from execution by Starkweather and forced to become the new "star" of his latest snuff film, violently but efficiently killing his way through waves of murderous gangs with both brute strength and cunning stealth. Enraged upon seeing his family murdered after he'd just rescued them and then being double-crossed by Starkweather, Cash swears revenge upon the depraved director, protecting a journalist from corrupt cops so she can release dirt on Starkweather in case he doesn't survive the night. Infiltrating Starkweather's mansion, Cash stealthily butchers the director's heavily armed mercenaries and lures the deranged, chainsaw-wielding cannibal Piggsy to his death before personally bringing Starkweather's life and his snuff ring to a deservedly gruesome end, ultimately getting away scot-free and undetected, and starting a construction business.
  • Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: Makoto Kagutsuchi is the CEO of Amaterasu Corporation and the homunculus of Number One. After being created by the UG, he escaped from them and headed to Kanai Ward, where he found the city overrun with berserk homunculi and created a rain cloud generator to protect them. After becoming CEO of Amaterasu and securing Kanai Ward’s isolation as a result of negotiations with the UG, he pretended to be Number One to kidnap criminals for the food supply of Kanai Ward and invited the Master Detectives to Kanai Ward to interfere with Yomi so that he could personally remove him from his position. He also lured out his original and encouraged him to solve the mysteries of Kanai Ward so he could personally duel Yuma in the Mystery Labyrinth and take his position as Number One for himself. In the end, despite losing, he still gets his ultimate goal of safety for Kanai Ward and its homunculi and he remains in power as CEO, striving to atone for his crimes.
  • Max Payne:
    • Mona Sax, the self-described "Evil Twin" of mafia bride Lisa Punchinello, is an intelligent hitwoman who forms a swift bond to Max Payne after drugging him to keep him from rampaging. Returning in the conflict between Alfred Woden and Vladimir Lem, Lisa has been working for Woden to "clean house," eliminating those on Vlad's side and almost claiming his life. Manipulating a Mob War in her favor to stymie Vlad, Mona uses Max to do her work for her, with only her growing love for him preventing her from killing him in the end.
    • The Fall of Max Payne: Vladimir "Vlad" Lem, debuting as an ally in the first game, is a friendly Russian mobster, quick with a joke and a smile and refers to everyone as the "dearest of all [his] friends". In truth, Vlad is a member of the Inner Circle who was manipulating Max from the start. Using his own professional assassin crew, the Cleaners, Vlad has the rest of the Inner Circle steadily eliminated while playing the NYPD and Max to do his work for him, even planning on having Max killed by Vlad's lover Detective Winterson, whose blind son Vlad is truly loving and affectionate with. When exposed by his former mentor, Alfred Woden, Vlad plans to manipulate Max and his hitwoman lover Mona Sax into killing one another while never losing his pleasant smile or friendliness.
  • MDK2:
    • Emperor Zizzy Balooba is a ruler of an alien empire and the ultimate mastermind behind the events of duology. Growing bored after uncovering all mysteries of space and time, Emperor decided to amuse himself by orchestrating an invasion on Earth. Sending his army to drive Minecrawlers through the cities and cause heroes great hardships, while remaining completely undetected with the heroes not knowing that he even exists, the Emperor manipulates everyone around him and even allows the heroes to win a few battles just to amuse himself. After being confronted by the heroes and revealing his true motivations, the Emperor was willing to stop his attempts to destroy or enslave Earth, since he had his fun. Being beaten mostly because he didn't take the fight seriously, Emperor manages to die dramatically as he wishes, never losing his jovial side.
    • Schwang Schwing is the chief agent of Emperor Zizzy Balooba, who commands his armies, while his boss remains in the shadows. Easily capturing both Kurt Hectic and Max, Schwang also manages to have his army penetrate Dr. Fluke Hawkins' impenetrable ship, sending an alien genius, the BFB, to capture Hawkins, in which he ultimately succeeded. Battling and evading Kurt, while not losing his cool attitude, Schwang then casually reveals that the Emperor was behind everything, simply because he has nothing personal against Kurt. Preparing the Ultimate Doomsday Device and initiating a countdown, Schwang manages to face Max in combat and remain a dangerous opponent, despite being handicapped and only being able to move in a flying wheelchair.
  • Messiah: Bob is a cherubic, child-like angel tasked by God to test his skills on a dystopian Earth. Told by a mysterious voice to take down Father Prime and save the Earth, Bob uses his powers of possession to stealthily take over the minds of engineers, soldiers, and dozens more to use their skills to progress, uncaring about the lives he puts in danger or people he sacrifices to proceed. Killing Prime by possessing his prized mutant, which ends up freeing Satan from Prime’s captivity, Bob disobeys God’s orders to return to Heaven in order to rescue mankind from Satan, taking him down and saving the Earth at the cost of God’s trust in him.
  • Metroid: Other M:
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: Celebrimbor, the Bright Lord, is the one who forged the One Ring for Sauron, before realizing Sauron's true nature. Briefly overcoming Sauron and losing thanks to the wiles of the Ring itself, Celebrimbor returns as The Wraith in the present, manipulating the revived ranger Talion into slowly taking over parts of Mordor and establishing the kingdom of the Bright Lord, crushing the wills of the uruks to serve him to steadily supplant Sauron himself. Finally raising an army to challenge Sauron, Celebrimbor promptly abandons Talion for a host he believes to be stronger and even shows himself capable of challenging Sauron in a duel.
  • Midnight Scenes Episode 2: The Goodbye Note: "Linda" is a cunning alien spy, who infiltrated the facility where humans have hidden the extraterrestrial artefact, Elysian. Fooling everyone into trusting her, Linda manipulates Dr. Richard P. Griffin into retrieving Elysian from Secure Compartment by secretly placing a toy robot in the ventilation system and passing it off as rat being trapped in the vents. Hunting down Richard and having him surrender Elysian after taking over the plane he was in, Linda succeeds in her mission and led the aliens to conquer the Earth.
  • Mister Mosquito duology:
    • Mister Mosquito himself is a cute, yet cunning, insect who possesses human-like intelligence. Needing blood for the upcoming winter, Mister Mosquito invades the Yamada family household to suck their blood, using stealthy deception and evasive attack strategies to acquire his food. Uncaring that his plans result in the family's degradation, Mister Mosquito is able to outmaneuver every deadly attack the Yamadas throw at him and survive for another summer. Later sneaking inside the Yamadas' luggage and following them to Hawaii, Mister Mosquito torments both the Yamadas and Browns for their blood, evading their attacks and coming out the victor once again.
    • Ka 2: Let's Go Hawaii: The American Mosquito is no less cunning than his Japanese counterpart. Using Mister Mosquito's presence to disguise his acts of blood sucking, the American Mosquito is able to avoid everything the Browns throw at him, eventually faking his own death to make them think they've succeeded in killing him.
  • Mirror's Edge series:
    • Original game: Celeste Wilson is one of the closest friends of Faith Connors and one of the Runners. Getting tired of simply surviving and wanting to "live a little too", Celeste secretly starts to work for Mayor Elaine Callaghan, killing a mayoral candidate Robert Pope and framing Faith's sister, Kate Connors, for the deed. Managing to keep her true involvement in everything a secret from everyone else, Celeste also killed Travis Burfield to keep him from revealing a truth to Faith. Assisting Pirandello Kruger security in training special assassins to hunt down the Runners, Celeste fights off Faith and upon her true identity being revealed, managed to hold her ground by pulling a gun on Faith, only losing due to being distracted by the arriving Pirandello Kruger forces.
    • Catalyst: Dogen is the "Crime Czar of Glass" who poses as a high society chef. When Faith accidentally sabotages one of his deals, rather than punish her, Dogen instead offers her a job, recognizing her clear skills and talent and offering her mother's drawing as payment. When Faith fails to complete the job, he remains unsympathetic to her plight, yet still pulls strings to ensure that Faith only spends a year in prison, saving her from exile. Upon her release, he orders her to destroy the Anansi corporation, uncaring that his plan would kill all those inside because they owe him. Upon Noah's death, Dogen gives Faith the harsh words she needs to rise up from her despair, convincing her to go after Gabriel Kruger despite the seemingly impossible nature of the task. Following Kruger's death, Dogen then refuses to clear her debt, reasoning that if he did so, he'd have no reason to see her anymore, and he'd much prefer to continue their business relationship.
  • Mobile Legends: Bang Bang: Yu Zhong is the reincarnation of the Black Dragon, one of the founders of the Dragon Altar in Cadia Riverlands betrayed by his friend and swearing to come back to finish what he started. Witnessing the horrors of the Land of Dawn outside his home, Yu Zhong aims to usurp the rulership of the Dragon Altar from his pacifistic master, the Great Dragon, believing that physical strength and valor are what will protect the land instead of pacifism and virtue. Despite facing several setbacks, Yu Zhong forges his path to reclaim the Black Dragon's Reverse Scale, regaining his predecessor's memories and power while keeping his sanity. In spite of the old friends that he has to betray, Yu Zhong stands firm with his immense power at hand that he will take over the Dragon Altar and protect it and the Cadia Riverlands from the very real chance of a demonic invasion.
  • MORFOSI (2020): Jon, a seemingly jovial friend of Timothy, in reality is a devoted servant of a shapeshifting demon Lord Morfosi. As Morfosi reincarnates himself into one of the humans after his death, Jon befriended countless men and lured them to Morfosi's mansion, in an effort to find into whom Morfosi reincarnated into, which led to their deaths. Orchestrating the events that led to Timothy getting lured into the mansion, Jon is overjoyed upon learning that Timothy is the true vessel of Lord Morfosi, eagerly welcoming back his master.
  • Mortal Kombat franchise:
    • Deadly Alliance: Nitara is a vampire whose realm, Vaeternus, was conquered by Shao Kahn. Seeking to free it, Nitara finds the Portal Sphere, an orb which, if destroyed, will free Vaeternus. Since the Portal Sphere was being submerged in lava, Nitara decided she needed the cyborg Cyrax to obtain it. Earning Reptile's loyalty with a Saurian artifact, Nitara has him damage Cyrax's teleportation device. Nitara, having the means to travel the Realms, offers to send Cyrax home if he retrieves the Portal Sphere for her. Cyrax agrees and Nitara keeps her word, afterwards destroying the Portal Sphere. One of the few to save her homeworld from Shao Kahn—all by her own cunning—Nitara was willing to use underhanded means, but all to save her home and people.
    • Deception & Armageddon: Onaga, the Dragon King, was the Emperor of Outworld before he was overthrown by Shao Kahn. In Deception's Konquest mode, over a process of decades, Onaga manipulates the protagonist Shujinko, from the time the latter is a young man, playing on Shujinko's desire for adventure and giving him the ability to copy the fighting style of any kombatant he meets. Using an avatar he calls "Damashi"—based on the Japanese for "deceive"—Onaga pretends to be an emissary of the Elder Gods, and claims they need Shujinko to retrieve 6 items called Kamidogu. In truth, Onaga wants the items for himself, and once Shujinko has retrieved all 6, Onaga is finally able to regain corporeal form. Revealing his deception, he takes the Kamidogu, overpowers Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi to retrieve the latter's amulet, and sets about conquering the realms. Even though he is eventually defeated by Shujinko, Onaga survives, and is willing to work with Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, Shinnok, and even Shao Kahn, but is secretly planning to betray them and gain ultimate power.
  • Mortal Shell: The Old Prisoner is an ancient and powerful being imprisoned in Fallgrim Tower, until the Foundling frees him. The Old Prisoner tasks the Foundling to retrieve three Glands where he plans to use them to ascend from Fallgrim. Upon learning that the Foundling, not him, is meant to ascend, the Old Prisoner battles them declaring if he's not able to ascend than no one can.
  • My Friend Pedro: Pedro is the Imaginary Friend of the Protagonist who willingly helps him plan the downfall of his criminal family. After the protagonist gives himself amnesia, Pedro tricks the now amnesiac vigilante into killing his family and eliminating the mob, teaching him some fighting techniques and encouraging him to get creative with them as to stylishly kill enemies. After the vigilante figures out his plan, Pedro reveals that his final request was to forcefully make him kill himself should he figure out, a task that Pedro reluctantly carries out, engaging him in mental combat when the vigilante resists.
  • Need for Speed: Carbon: Darius is the leader of the notorious Stacked Deck street racing crew in Palmont City. Bailing the Player Character out, Darius has him race other crew leaders so he can take control of their territories and sells the player out to the bounty hunter, Nathan Cross, once he is of no use to him. It's been revealed that Darius caused the event that tarnished the player's reputation by tipping off the police of a street race the player was participating in, switched the money bag, and letting the player escape Palmont. When Darius learns that Nikki made a deal with Cross to free the player, he recruits the fallen crew leaders to Stacked Deck and has them race the player before racing him personally. With his cunning only matched by his racing skills, Darius nearly defeats the player on the track before accepting his defeat with grace merely telling the player to enjoy his victory while it last as there's always someone out there who's a little faster than him and eventually they're gonna catch up.
  • NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams: Reala is the second-hand Nightmaren to Wizeman the Wicked who combines intense loyalty with forward-thinking action. Tasked with apprehending the rogue, free-spirited NiGHTS, Reala confides in his master the "perfect plan" where he places Second-Level minions in the best spots to maximize the chance of success. Possessed of a faux-gentlemanly charm and cutting tongue, Reala demonstrates his manipulative acumen by shaking Helen's faith in NIGHTS with a Half-Truth strengthened by a carefully laid lie, providing a window of opportunity to dispose of her and recapture his target. Also one to play hardball, Reala corners Will when he is alone and uses him as leverage to cage NiGHTS. Cruel, underhanded, but impressively pragmatic, Reala would stop at nothing to bring their "heads to Master Wizeman himself."
  • Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon: The orignal Malvasia, also known as the Moon Queen, is a demon who was once in love with a human named Alstromeria. As their love was not accepted by the other humans, Alstromeria killed Malvasia before committing suicide. Malvasia is resurrected and experimented on by the Curia until she escapes and learns about Alstromeria's death. Believing that demon and human couldn't live together, Malvasia decides to kill all humans by spreading the Eternal Night. When Arnice tries to stop her, Malvasia forces her to surrender by kidnapping her girlfriend Lilysse and corrupts Arnice by torturing her and telling her that she killed Lilysse. When she faces Aluche for the first time, she manages to kill her and to kidnap her friend Liliana to take her power. When Liliana escapes and Aluche is resurrected has an half-demon, Malvasia plans to make Aluche stronger for their next fight, sending her right-hand Vallderossa to hurt Aluche's friend.
  • Nioh series:
    • First game:
      • Tokugawa Ieyasu, in spite of being the Big Good, is a ruthless man out to unify Japan to put an end to the eras of war and bloodshed. Recruiting William Adams so William will handle the dirty work for him, Ieyasu manipulates the fraught political situation while gaining more power as he crushes the Toyotomi forces, even sacrificing his own allies to secure an advantage. Ending by defeating the Toyotomi at Sekigahara, Ieyasu orders William's death to bury the truth of the Amrita crisis, only to reveal he knows William is actually alive before having a good laugh over it.
      • Lady Maria is a charming spy from Spain who arrives in Japan, whereupon she ingratiates herself to Date Masamune and helps him kick off a rebellion, creating a new war so she may harvest Amrita for the betterment of Spain. Later repeating the same action with Sanada Yukimura at his castle, Maria manipulates Lady Yodo at Osaka Castle to continue the conflicts, allowing her to slip off completely free and clear of any punishment no less than three times, all for the betterment of Spain and revenge against England for stealing her kingdom's golden age.
    • Nioh 2: Otakemaru, often operating under his guise of "Kasshin Koji", was once a kind Youkai twisted into hatred by the persecution of humanity. After being defeated and sealed by his sister Suzuka, Otakemaru persists in a fragment of himself, manipulating numerous key figures throughout Japanese history, including Ashiya Doman, gathering energy to free himself and plans to unleash the Youkai and bring humanity to ruin. Masterminding the unsealing of the other Youkai as well as multiple wars, Otakemaru corrupts the kindly Tokichiro into the bloodthirsty Hideyoshi, with even death being insufficient to truly extinguish his spirit until a final battle with his sister's child Hide, passing to admit his wrongdoings in the afterlife.
  • Nocturne (1999): The Stranger is Spookhouse's top field agent. Perpetually stoic and sardonic, what the Stranger lacks in people skills, he makes up for in being an effective monster hunter. His claim to fame was wiping out communities of different horrors, earning him the attention of ancient gods and demons alike. Mostly relying on mundane firearms, the Stranger's feats include near single handedly saving a town from a zombie outbreak, fighting off a werewolf attack on the way to said outbreak, and uncovering and dismantling a mob operation to create zombified enforcers. Despite his admitted disdain for monsters, he sets it aside and considerably mellows from it over the years: setting out to save the dhamphir Svetlana from being one of Count Voicu's brides, and helping Moloch escape a madman's murder-house filled with elaborate death traps. During an investigation on Burkittsville, the Stranger saves Doc Holliday from suspicious townsfolk with a cover-story of them being in the FBI while using a toy badge to trick them; the Stranger would then help Holliday rescue a child that the evil spirit Hecaitomix is keeping captive, before sealing the demon off.
  • Noitu Love 2: Devolution: Dr. Tango is the true leader of the returning Grinning Darns. The Master Computer of Professor Darnacus Damnation, Tango sought to succeed where he failed and Take Over the World. Waiting until the after famed hero Noitu Love dies, Tango begins building Towers that can scan and restore past data, and recreates the year 2288, and causing chaos while disguising herself as a human and getting entrance into the Peacekeepers. Gaining the trust of Xoda Rap and Mr. Almond, Tango releases Rilo Doppelori and frames her for masterminding the Darn invasion. Eventually kidnapping Almond and distracting Xoda by getting her to rescue him, Tango launches an assault on the Peacekeepers' headquarters and claims the last Evomatic, becoming a powerful machine and engaging Xoda in a final, climactic battle.

    O - S 
  • Octopath Traveler:
    • First game: Therion is a calm, snarky and secretly caring thief and one of the eight playable travelers, touted as the enemy of all wealthy people and houses. Stealing for his own gain and profit, Therion hears of a challenge to steal the Dragonstone from the well-guarded House Ravus, and infiltrates it with ease. Upon reaching the treasure, he is met with Heathcote, who, after a battle, reveals that he has branded him with a Fool's Bangle, and forces him to help him and the lady of the house, Cordelia Ravus, retrieve the remaining Dragonstones, thanks to his commendable thieving talents. Deploying his skills at pickpocketing, acting, stealth and combat, Therion successfully snatches the Dragonstones, managing to steal the last two back after Darius makes off with them, and once he returns, he is freed. Here, it is revealed that Heathcote unlocked the Bangle as early as the second chapter, and Therion was aware of this the entire time, having kept it on and continuing the mission out of implicit loyalty and trust in his employer.
    • Octopath Traveler II:
      • Osvald V. Vanstein is a taciturn scholar researching the One True Magic, and one of the eight playable travelers. Falsely imprisoned in Frigit Isle for the deaths of his wife and daughter, Osvald spends five years plotting his escape, extorting clothing out of Bale and teaming up with Emerald to escape, though he fights the warden to escape just as the exit is out of reach. Now unable to use the inspectors' ship, Osvald improvises a boat made of ice magic and straw, which successfully carries him alone to the mainland, even if he passes out after four days. After coming to, he returns to his home to begin his hunt for the man truly responsible, Harvey, and questions Captain Stenvar, defeating him and burning down his fortune after gaining the information he needs, and heading to Montwise to confront his nemesis. There, he learns that his daughter is still alive, and changes his priorities from revenge to protecting her as Harvey intends to sacrifice her to create the Book of Demons. Following the professor to the Duskruin Shrine, he combines his determination to save Elena with all of his calculations and research, and successfully harnesses the One True Magic, defeating Harvey. With Elena safe, he leaves her in the care of his assistant so that she can recover, while he goes to hunt down Harvey's accomplices.
      • Kazan, the Eagle of Ku, is the nation's finest military strategist and one of Hikari's staunchest allies—at first. Introduced as a pragmatic and manipulative hero, Kazan shows off his cunning in the early chapters by tricking Hikari into signing up for gladiatorial combat in Montwise to supposedly cover his gambling debts, only to spin the situation into a full-on rebellion that ends with the gladiators freeing themselves from their corrupt captors. Ultimately, though, "Kazan" is no friend of the heroes: his real name is Oboro, an embittered orphan of war who ingratiated himself with King Jigo Ku to manipulate Hikari's entire story, including the rise and fall of Mugen. A member of the Moonshade Order, every single manipulation and gambit he lays out is for the purpose of seeing Vide the Wicked God rise and destroy what he sees is a hopelessly corrupt world. The final member of the Order left standing at the end, Oboro calmly sacrifices his own life to see Vide's advent through, remaining utterly convinced to the end that the world would be better off dead than suffering.
  • Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath: Stranger himself is a gruff and enigmatic Bounty Hunter that hunts outlaws to pay for an expensive operation he needs to survive. Combining an intense snark and sharp mind, he uses a wide variety of strange animals as living ammo to lure, capture, or kill his targets while always making the most of his environment to handily defeat entire gangs and their leaders. In truth, Stranger is the last of the Steefs that once protected the Mongo River and its Grubb inhabitants from the depredations of the greedy and monstrous Sekto. Needing the operation to become bipedal, Stranger is ultimately found out and rejoins the Grubbs for self preservation, but he soon chooses to become their guardian when they accept him. Rallying them and saving their city, he valiantly leads them to depose Sekto and destroy his dam, restoring their culture and finally finding a place to call home.
  • Orwell: Juliet Kerrington is a member of the activist group, Thought, and the true mastermind behind the bombings throughout Bonton. Finding out about Orwell through Abraham Goldfels, the deceased leader of Thought, Juliet plots to shutdown the program. While impersonating Goldfels, Juliet convinces Nina to plant bombs throughout Bonton. Later, she sends the investigator and Symes on a goose chae by making them believe that Goldfels is the mastermind behind the bombings before later leading them to find out that Goldfels died months prior to the bombings, letting them know that Orwell leads the government to make rash decisions before getting the full story. On the final day, Juliet argues to the investigator about how flawed a system Orwell is as it easily leads to innocent people being wrongly convicted, pointing out how the investigator saw its flaws first hand. Depending on player choices, Juliet potentially succeeds in convincing the investigator to lead to Orwell being shut down, leading Thought to be promoted to a major political party within The Nation.
  • The Outer Worlds: Ruth Bellamy is one half of the twins comprising the authentic identity behind "Halcyon Helen", the preeminent actress in the Halcyon colony. Embarking on a relentless quest for retribution upon uncovering Administrator Ludovico's sinister plot to spread slug-like parasites through the new Brown Spectrum, Ruth goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after Ludovico has her twin sister, Belinda, killed due to the two sharing the identity of Helen, prompting Ruth to astutely exploit this mishap to dismantle key elements of the conspiracy. With strategic prowess, she stays ahead of the Unplanned Variable, revealing the truth and engaging in a formidable battle against Ludovico with the aid of her SLUG allies, nearly halting Brown Spectrum's perilous spread. In the route where she allies with the Unplanned Variable, she imparts her Needler, guiding them to thwart Ludovico's scheme by spreading an anti-parasitic remedy, ensuring her sister's murderer meets a deserved fate in both story divergences.
  • Outlast: Father Martin Archimbaud is an inmate who founded a religion centered around worship of the Walrider, considering himself to be a prophet and inspiring fierce devotion in many of the inmates and variants, including the Twins. Upon meeting Miles, Martin believes him to be an apostle who needs to bear witness. Martin prevents Miles from leaving the asylum by cutting power and then sedating him, though quite apologetic for his actions. Martin serves as a guide to help Miles navigate through the asylum, often leaving notes or messages written on the wall in blood, while also displaying concern for Miles' well-being. Eventually Martin chooses to have himself burned on a cross as a sacrifice to the Walrider, but not before allowing Miles to gain access to the Underground Laboratory, where Miles ends up inadvertently releasing the Walrider exactly as Martin had intended.
  • Overwatch:
    • Akande Ogundimu, the third Doomfist, is a hulking man with an idea to strengthen humanity through conflict. Murdering his greedy teacher for his lack of vision, Doomfist ascended to the inner circle of Talon's leadership through his political skill, intending to start the war that would change the world. Even when locked away by Overwatch, Doomfist simply bided his time, keeping tabs on the outside world until Talon was ready to free him. Once they did, Doomfist orchestrated a plan to sack the money-grubbing acting leader Vialli and his cohorts, bringing Talon back to its Darwin-esque roots, ready to bring forth the bloodiest battle the world's ever seen.
    • The sassy, enigmatic Sombra, born Olivia Colomar, was a former member of the Los Muertos gang, where she used her penchant for manipulation and hacking to play various corrupt Mexican officials to her whims, with her escapades making her a local hero to the town of Dorado. After a power trip gone wrong where she unwittingly ended up noticed by a terrifying secret global organization, she purged all records of her existence and decided to increase the scale of her hacking schemes. Emerging under Talon's employ, Sombra properly introduces herself in the "Infiltration" short, working behind Reaper's back to save Katya Volskaya from Talon's assassination attempt, only to blackmail her by threatening to expose her shady dealings with Omnics. When Katya tries to beat her at her own game by sending Zarya after her, Sombra quickly bounces back by revealing she knew she was being hunted and rigged her base to explode to make her escape.
  • Owlboy: The meek outcast Solus is the prophesied Owlboy, who masterminded the attacks of the pirates to save the world. Aware of the history of his people and the Hex Machine they made that will end up floating the world into space, Solus plans to steal the owl relics in order to use the Anti-Hex machine to stop it, working with the Sky Pirates and Molstrom to attack the cities the relics are hidden feigning world conquest. Gathering them all after their invasion, Solus betrays them and steals the relics for himself while leaving the pirates at the mercy Otus and his friends. With the relics on hand, Solus activates the ritual to use the Anti-Hex machine, battling Otus and his friends in a cosmic final battle using the powers of the relics, finally saving the world from the Hex Machine and Molstrom after getting Otus to his side to stop the two.
  • Papa Louie Arcade: Papa Louie himself is a brilliant chef who conned his way to building the most successful restaurant chain. Tricking people into working for him and running his restaurants, from holding a contest where the unknown prize is being forced into running his restaurant to advertising a position on an island with 12 people, knowing full well a tourist cruise was on its way. He would often hire people simply down on their luck and do his best to help with their problems. Keeping the profits while his employees build up his restaurants, he still pays a generous wage, and despite most being tricked into it all his employees came to love their jobs. Truly caring for both his employees and his customers, he single-handedly fought off an Inter-dimensional invasion to save them, his brilliance loved in one world and feared in another.
  • Papers, Please: Calensk is a border guard working alongside the Inspector. Dissatisfied with his pay as he tries to survive in Arstotzka, Calensk approaches the Inspector and cuts a deal with them to detain more people, no matter how flimsy the reasoning, in exchange for a decent bonus. Calensk proves more than meets the eye when a terrorist leaves a bomb on the Inspector's desk. With absolute calm, Calensk proceeds in aiding the Inspector in disarming the bomb, before telling the Inspector not to shut down the checkpoint to ensure continual profit and ultimately selling the bomb for scrap as though it was no trouble at all.
  • Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Regill Derenge is the Paralictor of a unit of Hellknights of the order of the Godclaw, sent to establish an outpost in the Wounded Lands. During the Fifth Crusade, Regill employs ruthless yet effective military strategies to fight the demonic invasion such as executing wounded soldiers to ensure that Gargoyles would not convert them into undead. If allowed to join forces with the Commander, Regill will test the Commander to see if they have the character to lead through various underhanded means such as warning the Commander of a demonic siege on a Hellknight Outpost despite him evacuating his men safely beforehand; said attack being used as a pretext to test how the Commander responds to a succubus' temptations. Towards the end of the Fifth Crusade, Regill, aware of brewing conflict between the Crusaders and the Hellknights, organizes a tribunal to allow the Hellknights to judge the Commander. During the tribunal, Regill subtly leads the judges to side with the Commander through his machinations, and then challenges the Commander to a duel after publicly disagreeing with their verdict which he fully intends to lose in order to strengthen the Commander's influence in the Hellknights. Despite this move stripping him of his rank, Regill sees it as a worthy sacrifice given his Bleaching condition.
  • Payday series:
    • The Heist: Bain is the friendly, enigmatic creator of CRIME.NET and the titular gang's main contractor. Genuinely caring about the gang, Bain does the majority of the planning for their first eight heists, which go off without a problem. Two years later Bain helps Dallas out of retirement by sending him on two training missions and then proceeding to organize Hoxton's escape from prison with help of the Dentist. After befriending a Murkywater operative named Locke, Locke seemingly betrays the crew, however Bain is able to escort them out before finding out that Locke is trustworthy and advising the gang to trust Locke at all costs before being captured. Bain kills several Murkywater guards in his injured state before being escorted off of Hell's Island and finding out he has a deadly virus. Planning one final heist on the White House, Bain successfully gets the gang to steal twenty four presidential pardons before either gracefully succumbing to the virus or being reincarnated as the 46th President of the United States if the Ark of the Watcher is activated. Against killing civilians and capable of kindness, Bain proves to be an effective yet noble mastermind.
    • PAYDAY 2:
      • John Henry Simmons, known on CRIME.NET as "The Elephant", is an ambitious politician aiming to become Senate and willing to pull plenty of strings to do so. Hiring the titular gang, he has them do a number of heists to increase his good publicity, with objectives ranging from rigging ballots to framing rivals, himself aiding by warning the gang of police assets ahead of time. Consistently giving them hefty rewards for their heists, he uses his power to assist the gang if needed, being responsible for Hoxton being transported to a less secure prison so that the gang can bust him out. Being exposed by the same Ancient Conspiracy he was involved with, he uses his various connections to bail himself out, promptly using his knowledge of the conspiracy to have the gang steal an ancient artifact and rescue Bain from them. Using the publicity from the failed exposure, he becomes a figurehead for anti corruption, thus gaining more power than he had before and ending the game on his own terms.
      • Dr. Helmann, aka "the Dentist", is the mysterious leader of The Kataku masquerading as a simple dentist. Contacting the Payday gang via replacing Dallas's dentist, he reveals that he has the connections to help free imprisoned member Hoxton, having them do some heists for him in exchange for his assistance. The heists showing his planning skills, he uses his various connections to make the job easier. Eventually betraying the gang, he supplies Commissioner Garret with Bain's location, promising to supply dirt on politician the Elephant in exchange for Bain for themselves, framing Locke for Helmann's betrayal. Even after the gang recover and find Bain's holding location, The Dentist reveals to Murkywater that they're sneaking into Hell's Island, alerting the guards to their presence. He also had Bain infected with a virus that'll slowly kill him, which indeed does in the Bad Ending. In the True Ending, after the gang discover a secret device that's implied to have reincarnated Helmann numerous times, he confronts them himself, holding Bain and Locke at gunpoint, with Helmann's death triggering the cave to collapse on itself, nearly killing the gang.
      • Vernon Locke is the Murkywater cyber task force leader who hacks into CRIME.NET and threatens to destroy it if the Payday gang doesn't work with him. Bain accepts the offer and Locke helps him plan out their first two heists together. Locke later fakes betrayal to keep Murkywater's trust however later reveals his loyalty to the gang by coming back to help them find Bain after he has been captured. Locke sends the gang to various locations to retrieve useful items for Bain's escape, successfully organizing his rescue from Hell's Island, a maximum security Murkywater prison. After finding out that Bain has a virus, he helps Bain plan the most ambitious heist yet on the White House, successfully getting the gang twenty four presidential pardons and either mourning Bain's death in the Bad Ending or managing to have Bain reincarnated in the True Ending before winding down and celebrating with the gang. Despite initially seeming antagonistic towards the gang, he ultimately proves himself to be a worthy successor to Bain as the Payday gang's main contractor.
      • Jimmy is as charismatic and clever as ever. After the Payday gang get hired by Akan, Jimmy manages to kidnap some members in order to negotiate a deal for them to work for him, eventually winning them over after some complications he manages to overcome. Jimmy then organizes two separate heists, first having the gang secretly infiltrate a Murkywater base for EMP bomb parts, then dropping the bomb onto Akan's base so that the gang can raid it, with Jimmy himself supplying the gang with what they need. Eventually, through his Cokehead clone, he joins the gang proper, being able to perform the same tasks as the others while being willing to put himself in harm's way to benefit the gang. Implied to have survived in this version, Jimmy proves to be a loyal member of the gang.
  • Perdition: Tanas is the AI responsible for returning sapience to the androids. Having once served as a conscience to the tyrannical Gomadi, he began his existence independent of him after being cast down into the abyss and devising a plot to overthrow his crueler half by granting the androids their sapience back and encouraging them into acts of violence against the executioners and the blind androids, then ensnaring them in his battery network to siphon their battery life until he becomes strong enough to take on Gomadi. If protagonist Eve kills him, he will simply request that she climbs to the heavens and to oust Gomadi from his position of power and free the androids from their suffering.
  • Pillars of Eternity: Thaos Ix Arkannon, the immortal grandmaster of the Leaden Key. Millenia ago, Thaos led an Inquisition that tortured and executed anyone who refused to worship Thaos's gods. When one heretic named Iovara led a rebellion against Thaos, he convinced a close acquaintance of Iovara, to lead her into a trap so she could be tortured and executed. Thaos later formed the Leaden Key, a secret society dedicated to hiding the gods' secrets. Thaos manipulated the entire world for millenia, with only a handful of people being aware that he exists. When the animancers in the Dyrwood come close to learning the gods' secrets, Thaos resolves to discredit and ban animancy. He uses soul manipulating machines to cause nearly all children in the Dyrwood to be Hollowborn, making it appear to be divine retribution for the death of the god Eothas. He prepares to feed the stolen souls to the godess Woedica, so she can use the new power to hide the gods' secrets. He sabotages high profile animancy experiments, in one case causing a zombie outbreak in a major city. Eventually, Duc Aevar, ruler of the Dyrwood holds a hearing to discuss banning animancy. The Watcher takes the opportunity to expose Thaos and the Leaden Key. However, Thaos possesses an animancer into murdering Aevar, causing horrific anti-animancy riots to break out. This usually ends with animancy banned in the Dyrwood.
  • Pizza Tower: Mr. Stick is a con artist dedicated to making as much money as possible off of Pizza Tower. Exploiting Peppino's desperation, he sets up numerous Boss Gates and forces him to pay the fees to proceed through the Tower, encouraging him to rescue the Toppins so they can pay him out of gratitude, while in exchange he helps him and Gustavo navigate the tower during Pizza Time. Conning Peppino out of his last bit of money via a charity guise, Mr. Stick ultimately escapes Pizza Tower alongside everyone else with a large sack of cash in tow, his scheme successful.
  • Planescape: Torment: Trias the Betrayer was an angel who grew dissatisfied with the Heavens' refusal to intervene in the Blood War. To that end, Trias tried to rally an army of fiends to break angelic complacency. Imprisoned for his deeds, Trias manipulates the Nameless One into freeing him after setting up a scheme to raise a new army of Fiends, plotting to offer them the town of Curst in sacrifice. With his army, Trias plans to attack the gates of Heaven so the angels will be forced to take action against the Nine Hells and the Abyss at last.
  • Portal: GLaDOS is a computer created by Cave Johnson to run Aperture Science after his death. Once activated, GLaDOS proceeded to kill most of the scientists with neurotoxin and took over the Enrichment Center to conduct tests at her own leisure. In the present, GLaDOS put Chell through a series of potential lethal tests before trying to murder her. Defeated and shut down by Chell in retaliation, GLaDOS is accidentally awoken years later by Wheatley. Throwing Chell back into more tests, she is eventually overthrown by Wheatley thanks to Chell's actions. With Wheatley threatening to destroy the facility with his own stupidity, GLaDOS convinces Chell to help her take Aperture back from Wheatley, and in turn lets Chell go when that is done. Switching focus toward Cooperative Testing, GLaDOS uses the robots Atlas and P-body to secure control over the lower parts of the facility and eventually give her access to more human test subjects. When a mysterious hacker (actually a mother bird on a keyboard) forces her hand, resulting in the deaths of her human test subjects, GLaDOS sends the robots after it before adopting the baby birds to raise as killers.
  • Prayer of the Faithless: Aeyr Wilder, the Vanguard of Ruin, rejects the idea of the greater good after his Asalan countrymen turn on him for becoming a Revenant, instead prioritizing himself and his loved ones. During his journey to find his best friend Mia, Aeyr befriends Luke and Trill, influences them with his ideals, and survives encounters with the evil Revenant Gauron. When he learns that Mia is being held prisoner in the Vergio Empire, Aeyr kills Emperor Daigo in order to break her out, destabilizing the country in the process. Aeyr helps Mia overthrow Vanessa from Asala's throne, but due to their opposing ideologies and Mia's attempt to send him on a suicide mission for The Needs of the Many, Aeyr vows to dethrone her too and leave Asala without a leader. Rejecting Gauron's delusions of a Manna utopia, Aeyr steals the former's soul in order to gain control of Purgatory and spread red Fog, causing mass panic in Asala and luring Mia to his location. Aeyr then uses Mia as bait to distract Gauron's rampaging body so he can rescue his friends from Gauron's traps. After Aeyr teams up with Mia to destroy Gauron's body, the two engage in a deathmatch that tests their commitment to their personal creeds, all while still harboring respect for each other no matter the outcome.
  • Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown: Vahram is the leader of the Immortals and the greatest warrior in Persia who turns out to be the main villain. The son of King Darius who was next in line for the throne, all of that changed when Thomyris intervened, causing Darius to sacrifice himself to save Vahram, and for their god Simugh to flee. With Thomyris’s reign resulting in the decay of Persia, Vahram decided to use Prince Ghassan’s kidnapping as a way to secure Simugh’s power and reclaim the throne. Killing Ghassan and framing his fellow warrior Sargon for it, Vahram hopes to use his newfound time powers to absorb Simugh’s heart, where he will then reshape the world into one he thinks is right, willing to sacrifice many to restore order to Persia. Coming so close to achieving his dream, upon his defeat at the hands of Sargon, Vahram chooses to sacrifice himself to protect Sargon and ensure Simugh’s revival to save all of Persia.
  • Professor Layton: Jean Descole is Hershel Layton's older brother who became an archaeologist and criminal mastermind to take revenge on Targent for taking his parents away from him and his brother. Seeking to uncover the Azran legacies in order to reveal the civilization's secrets, he built advanced machines and manipulated others through blackmail, preying on a father's grief, and impersonating allies to get what he wants. In his civilian identity of Desmond Sycamore, he allied with Layton to oppose Targent, now led by their father, and unlock the secrets of the Azran before betraying him upon acquiring the key to the sanctuary. He ultimately takes a laser blast meant for Luke and sacrifices his life along with his brother to stop the Azran golems from destroying the world. Resurrected by Aurora, he parts ways with Layton on good terms and sets out on a new adventure with his butler Raymond by his side.
  • [PROTOTYPE]:
    • "Alex Mercer" is the Blacklight virus, which took the form and memories of the real Alex Mercer after he died. Awakening with no memories of his true origin, Alex starts to uncover it, thwarting Blackwatch operations along the way, saving and caring for his sister Dana, and even saving Manhattan from getting destroyed by a nuke. Growing disappointed with humanity afterwards, Alex decided to create a better world by wiping out humanity and replacing them with the "Evolved", people mutated with Blacklight which gives them similar powers. Creating the second outbreak by releasing the Blacklight virus upon New York and turning several people into Evolved, Alex had them infiltrate Blackwatch, which allowed him to manipulate the entire organization and use their resources for his own end. Infecting James Heller and turning him into an Evolved, Alex manages to briefly manipulate him and then corrupts the Whitelight cure, causing it to mutate people into Evolved instead of curing the virus. When James foils that scheme, Alex decides to kidnap his daughter instead, hoping to use her to infect the entire world.
    • The Supreme Hunter is the ultimate creation of Elizabeth Greene, who gained sentience after being defeated by Alex Mercer. Regenerating itself, the Supreme Hunter, at some point in time, tracked down and consumed Captain Robert Cross, taking his form and fooling everyone around it into trusting it. Manipulating Alex Mercer into eliminating key Blackwatch figures, before it used him to get close to General Randall to make sure Randall activated the nuke that was intended to wipe out Manhattan. Allowing Alex to consume Randall, The Supreme Hunter revealed itself to Alex, announcing its intention to consume Alex to empower itself to survive the explosion, to make the whole world to believe it is dead, while it can start to spread the virus somewhere else again.
  • Psychonauts: Among the people encountered by Razputin Aquato, these three have proven to be the most brilliant and amoral.
    • Ford Cruller is the founder of the Psychonauts and its greatest agent. After forming the Psychic Seven from several powerful Psychics, Ford fell in love with Lucrecia “Lucy” Mux. When Lucrecia left to help her home country of Grulovia win a war, she eventually was driven mad when she accidentally killed her sister Marona, taking on the name Maligula and terrorizing innocent people. Ford and his friends traveled to Grulovia to stop Maligula and Ford was able to subdue her. Ford then sealed Maligula away inside Lucrecia's mind and made her believe that she was Marona in order to protect her and Marona's son Agustus. Ford then shattered his own psyche out of guilt and convinced the world that Maligula was dead. His broken mind caused the Psychonauts to dismiss him as a "loon" but Ford found a way to temporarily restore his sanity and helped to organize the Psychonauts in secret. When Agustus' son Razputin Aquato came to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp to become a Psychonaut, Ford began secretly training him and frequently gave him advice as he worked to stop the machinations of Coach Oleander. When Raz restored Ford's mind, the two worked together to permanently seal away Maligula and Ford was reunited with his beloved Lucy.
    • Coach Morceau Oleander is a respected Psychonaut who secretly harbors dreams of world domination born from trauma he suffered as a child. Teaming up with Dr. Loboto, Oleander had him mutate a lungfish into a monster, who he then sent to kidnap the campers at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp and bring them to his base at Thorney Towers Home for the Disturbed. Oleander would then have Loboto remove the campers' brains and put them into Brain Tanks that Oleander developed which he planned to use to take over the world. Oleander also implanted the persona of The Milkman into Boyd Cooper in order to destroy the evidence of Oleander’s scheme, and also managed to capture famed Psychonauts Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello by luring them into a trap. When Razputin Aquato managed to rescue Sasha, Milla, and Lili Zanotto, Oleander battled Sasha, Milla, and Ford Cruller. When his own brain was removed Oleander took control of one of his Brain Tanks and nearly managed to defeat everyone before Raz was able to restore his sanity, returning Oleander to his normal heroic self.
    • Dr. Caligosto Loboto is a dentist turned freelance Mad Scientist who, despite his insanity, manages to be one of Razputin Aquato's most dangerous adversaries. Teaming up with Coach Oleander, Loboto mutated a lungfish into a monster to kidnap psychic children to power their Brain Tanks. Taking control of Thorney Towers Home for the Disturbed, Loboto has Crispin Whytehead guard the way to Loboto's lab, shielding him from Psychic interference for good measure. Loboto forces the brilliant Sheegor to be his lab assistant by holding her pet turtle hostage. After being defeated, Loboto was hired by the evil Gristol Malik to put his brain into the body of Truman Zanotto. Loboto kidnapped Truman and set up a new base in the Rhombus of Ruin, mutating several fish to help him and capturing Raz and his friends when they arrived. When Raz restored his Moral Compass, Loboto freed everyone and destroyed his base before being captured. When the Psychonauts tried to figure out who hired Loboto by tricking him inside of his mind, Loboto saw through the deception and took back control of his mind, managing to defeat everyone but Raz. Ultimately Loboto is able to escape Psychonauts HQ consequence-free.
  • Pumpkin Jack: Jack himself lives up to the legend of being the Devil's champion. Formerly a trickster and conman when he was human, Jack became infamous for being able to deceive the Devil himself multiple times. Being chosen as the Devil's champion to stop the Wizard, Jack showcases a remarkable prowess with adjusting to his body and dealing with the hordes of monsters that impede his journey. Travelling through an abonndoned mine in the mountains, Jack shows his nimbleness in dodging hazards and resourcefulness in using the minecarts to help him travel up towards the peak. Venturing through an ancient forest, Jack shows a pragmatic side to him by helping the Merchant gather resources for his wife, for the reward of possible knowledge on defeating the wizard. Jack then faces a horde of both monsters and humans navigating in a sieged city. After Jack aids Hell's architect to release the Seven Sins to gain access to the Wizard's domain. After defeating the Wizard, Jack claims the Amulet of Embers and uses it to become a god and freely roam the planet with no limitations for his desires.
  • Quantum Break: Martin Hatch is the perpetually calm and polite right-hand man to Paul Serene, putting up the appearance of a loyal advisor while truthfully scheming far beyond his employer's knowledge. A Shifter corrupted by Chronon energy who now seeks to ensure the End of Time occurs and impacts all of humanity so he and his fellow Shifters can live in their natural habitat, Hatch works with Paul to build up Monarch Solutions over the course of over a decade, all while subtly manipulating and pushing Paul into certain choices and actions. Adapting to any of the choices Paul makes to suit his needs, Hatch stages an assassination attempt on himself, tries to eliminate Paul's lover Sofia Amaral, and destroys Paul's Chronon treatments, all working together to make Paul more unstable and pliable to Hatch's machinations. As the End of Time approaches, Hatch turns off Monarch's stutterproof shielding and takes the CFR out of the picture before terrifyingly slaughtering Monarch Security to finalize his plans. Ever humble and insisting that he's only trying to bring "renewal and balance" to the world, Hatch accepts even his defeat with grace, quickly taking full control of Monarch from Paul and beginning a new strategy towards victory.
  • Quest 64: Shannon Stork, seemingly an Aloof Ally to hero Brian, is really the cunning creation of the true villain, Mammon. To release her master, Shannon orchestrates Brain's quest through Celtland, defeating his father to ensure Mammon's freedom and after Mammon's defeat, leaves to roam the world and learn about emotion out of respect for humans.
  • Radiant Historia: Heiss, wielder of the Black Chronicle, decided to plot the world's demise after growing cynical. A member of the Granorg's royal lineage, Heiss was meant to be sacrificed to stop the world's desertification, but after witnessing his brother, King Victor's tyranny and the dark side of people, Heiss ran from his duty, returning later to assassinate his brother to save his nephew Ernst from being sacrifice. Tired of the cycle of the ritual and the people squandering the peace given, Heiss determined to end the world, arranging events in history to its demise using the Black Chronicle, and his role as spymaster of Alister's Specint division while guiding Ernst, now called Stocke, as the wielder of the White Chronicle to join him. When Stocke decided to oppose him, Heiss attempted to put an end to the ritual for good by the destroying the Flux preventing it from being usable. In the end, when Stocke manage to prevail and show Heiss the beauty of the world, Heiss, as a last act of redemption, decided to stop Stocke from being sacrificed by offering his own life in his place, trusting Stocke to be the world's hope.
  • Ratchet & Clank series:
    • Slim Cognito is a slick black market dealer who specializes in illegal weapon and ship modifications. Running ads and kiosks across the galaxy to serve criminals far and wide, Slim performs his job "quickly, cheaply, and quietly" while offering discounts to loyal patrons. Slim evades law enforcement for years, even when directly pursued managing to hide away on backwater planets until the heat dies down. Though Slim is eventually caught, he continues to run his operation from prison and uses Ratchet to eliminate his rivals in the joint, never missing a step along the way.
    • Tools of Destruction & Quest for Booty: Rusty Pete is the affable best mate of Captain Slag, whose death at the hands of Ratchet leads Pete to conduct a ploy to revive him. To this end, he immediately starts getting into Ratchet's good graces by helping him find Qwark's location, as well as seemingly declaring him the new captain. Once he meets up with Ratchet and Talwyn again on the planet Merdegraw, he tricks his own crew into launching the two to where Captain Darkwater is buried, shortly meeting up with the two later to offer his assistance. Planning to place Slag's head onto Darkwater's body, he helps Ratchet out with puzzles using Slag's head before betraying the Lombax and resurrecting both Slag and Darkwater, proceeding to help them invade the island they're on, and even aiding in capturing Talwyn afterwards.
    • Into the Nexus: Neftin Prog is The Dragon and twin brother to Vendra Prog, plotting to unleash the Nethers into the galaxy. To this end, he and the Nethers start scaring the citizens of the Zarkov Sector out in order to leave more room for experimentation, doing a good enough job that the sector was mistaken for being haunted outright. Aiding his sister in capturing scientists from Pollyx Industries to create a new Dimensionator, Vendra is captured by galactic authorities while Neftin manages to escape with the hostages. Over the course of six months, he organizes numerous crime sprees to cover up his operation, bribes multiple politicians for the location of Vendra's prison ship, and hires the Thugs-4-Less as extra muscle, leading him to successfully rescue his sister and allow the two to resume their plot. When Vendra is betrayed by the Nether Leader and forcibly dragged into the Netherverse, Neftin wastes no time teaming up with Ratchet and Clank to rescue his sister and stop the monster, promising to turn himself and Vendra in after he's done, which he lives up to in the end.
  • Rayman:
    • Mr. Dark is Rayman's first adversary, as well as one of his most cunning. Effortlessly stealing both the Great Protoon and a batch of Electoons, he keeps tabs on Rayman throughout his quest and sends his goons after him, at one point ambushing and capturing the fairy Betilla. When Rayman finds the Electoons and enters Candy Chateau, Mr. Dark repeatedly curses Rayman to make his attempt harder, cumulating in him suddenly stealing Rayman's hands and rendering him unable to attack. Even when Rayman's hands are rescued, he continues to combat him, ending in Dark managing to escape. Eventually returning in Mini, he becomes an polite dealmaker who offers the player increasingly challenging levels in exchange for rewards, always upholding his end of the bargain if they win.
    • The Great Escape: Jano is the first nightmare of Polokus, the creator of the Antitoons, and the guardian of the Elixir of Life. An affable creature, he challenges Rayman to overcome the Cave of Bad Dreams to claim the Elixir, subjecting Rayman to platforming challenges, eventually joining himself to fight him. Upon losing, Jano offers Rayman a choice between gold or the Elixir, taking his defeat in stride. If Rayman chooses the Elixir, he reveals that he simply hypnotized Rayman into a dreamlike trance, the whole challenge being a Secret Test of Character, and allows Rayman to leave with his prize.
  • Red Dead Redemption 2:
    • Charles Smith is a member of the Van der Linde gang. An expert hunter and tracker, he helps Arthur Morgan hunt and kill two deer for the gang while they are stranded on a snowy mountain. Upon returning to civilization, he participates in various train, stagecoach and bank robberies, proving himself a valuable ally. While scouting for a new campsite, he and Arthur learn that a German man had been kidnapped from his family and despite Arthur's reluctance, Charles helps rescue him and return him to his family. Growing close to Arthur, he learns about his tuberculosis diagnosis and encourages him to make use of remaining time to do good. Lending his skills to aid the Wapiti Indians, he leads a prison break to rescue Eagles Flies, participates in a raid and ultimately stays with them. Years later, he reunites with John Marston, helps him build Beech's Hope and avenges Arthur by helping John and Sadie kill Micah.
    • Josiah Trelawny is a traveling Con Man and associate of the Van der Linde gang. Preferring deception to violence, he alerts the Van der Linde gang to Sean MacGuire's capture and aids in his rescue by distracting two bounty hunters. Reappearing in Rhodes, he brings Arthur along on a stagecoach robbery, distracting and charming the mark so that Arthur can peacefully loot the stagecoach's lockbox. In Saint Denis, Trelawny masterminds a heist on the Grand Korrigan riverboat, installing Leopold Strauss and Javier Escuella aboard and having Arthur impersonate an oil baron, cheat at poker and loot the riverboat's safe. Trelawny is the first to notice Dutch's mental decline and chooses to leave the gang, thanking Arthur for being his friend before he does.

  • Remember Me: Johnny Greenteeth is the leader of the Leapers and the only one among them, who managed to retain at least part of his mind, after mutation. Formerly known as Dr. John Green, who got betrayed and experimented on by Dr. Sebastian Quaid, Johnny Greenteeth remained hidden for many years in a Leaper infested tunnels, forming a bond with them and keeping his identity a secret, until Nilin found him and seemengly defeated him. After the Memorize Corporation started the Reconversion Project, allowing Dr. Quaid to experiment and brainwash Leapers into being slaves, Johnny got furious and used Nilin to get inside Quaid's laboratory, remaining hidden the entire time, until he tricked Quaid to come right to him and then killed him. Deciding to destroy the laboratory and the entire prison complex to "burn away all horrible memories", Johnny activated the self-destruct sequence and then tries to kill Nilin, almost succeeding, failing only due to Bad Request distracting him.
  • Road of the Dead: Refusing to die in the city as it's being overrun by zombies, John Creasman sets out on the highway, modifying his car into a mobile fortress to escape the carnage of the city, all while mowing down as many zombies and soldiers as he can. With the military catching onto his escape attempt, they deploy mines and spike strips and send carpet bombings and helicopters after him, all while he uses nothing but his own wits to evade them and damage them. In the end, with less than a minute to spare as the bomb is dropped, Creasman escapes the city through the tunnel as the city behind him burns in nuclear fire.
  • Robo Aleste: Oda Nobunaga, the new form of Lucifer, proves to be a cunning warlord who seeks to destroy the world and conquer it. Taking advantage of the new technological age to expand his control across Japan, when Nobunaga’s forces start to suddenly dwindle, he unleashes his White Fang ninja clan, having hidden them from the public eye for years. Manipulating them into slaughtering any army that's trying to stop him, Nobunaga comes close to victory until his untimely demise, but nevertheless accepting of his fate.
  • RUINER: The mysterious, nameless hacker "HER" becomes an ally of the Player Character, helping him rescue his kidnapped brother. Utterly ruthless in aiding him, she uses extreme methods: blackmailing and even using Electric Torture to extract information from their enemies. Revealed to have fabricated the kidnapping of the non-existent "brother", HER used the protagonist like an attack dog to remove enemies of the organization, HEAVEN, planning to betray and kill the leader of the organization. Although she is unrelenting in her methods, HER's masterplan is to destroy HEAVEN to free the countless innocents they have trapped in a nightmarish virtual reality and will not be taken from her noble goal.
  • Rhythm Heaven Megamix: Paprika is the eldest of the Gatekeeper Trio who deals in challenges and difficult tests. Alongside his brothers, he interrupts Tibby's journey to return home to Heaven World on four occasions, running gates based on the Endless Games for the player to clear each time. Outside of the main campaign, he also manages the Challenge Train and Perfect Campaigns, with his titular group of the former consisting of some of the most difficult tasks in the game. Despite enjoying seeing the player struggle with his objectives, Paprika gladly accepts defeat should the player succeed, rewarding them with Flow Balls to purchase Rhythm Games at the Café.
  • Roombo: First Blood: Dusty McClean is a ruthless, yet adorable vacuum cleaner robot who tasks himself with defending his family's home from burglars while they're away for the holidays. To this end, Dusty stealthily hacks into the household's various smart devices and repurposes them into death traps to brutally kill the thieves. Later on, when the burglars' boss, Family Corp CEO Dale Smith, has his family kidnapped and leaves him trapped in the TV World, Dusty makes his way through various challenges before escaping, defeating Robopal 9000, and saving his owners. After Dale uses his Kill Sat to destroy Millie's teddy bear, Dusty, seeking vengeance, breaks into his space station and kills his way through the CEO's clone army before finally ending his foe once and for all.
  • Sackboy: A Huge Adventure (2020): Vex initially comes off as a generic supervillain until his true colors are revealed. Planning to use a machine to throw Craftworld into chaos, Vex kidnaps the residents of Loom and has them work on his machine, while purposely letting Sackboy escape. After seemingly dropping his plans in the process and later fighting in an underwhelming manner when encountered, Vex eventually reveals to Sackboy that he dropped them on purpose so that he can get the MacGuffins which power his machine for himself, stealing them all from him and engaging him in a much more intense battle. Even after he's seemingly defeated, it's revealed that Vex had escaped and activated the Topsy-Turver already, planning to replace the Tree of Imagination with it to become a god. Nearly winning in the end, Vex proves to be the craftiest foe Sackboy's faced yet.
  • Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love:
    • Oda Nobunaga is a fierce demon lord whose might and strategic cunning has pushed New York into near complete conquest. A former Imperial general turned demon, Nobunaga in the past nearly destroyed and ruled over Japan until he was sealed away by the Five Ring Warriors. Having anticipated all of this, Nobunaga entrusts a plan to revive him to his most loyal servant Ranmaru. Upon reawakening, Nobunaga plunges New York into demonic hellscape using his sheer power and tactics with the demon army, even crippling the Combat Revue with a clever trap by sacrificing Ranmaru to eliminate Shinya. When Shinya returns and leads the group into the final battle against him, Nobunaga faces them with all head on, nearly winning multiple times through his many strategies and unyielding will, till the end and upon defeat graciously accepts a deal with Shinya to view the world in his eyes, giving him a chance to prove Nobunaga's brutal views wrong.
    • Ranmaru is the most faithful servant of Nobunaga who, through his wit, was able to manipulate all sides in bringing back his beloved master. As the leader of Nobunaga's guard, Ranmaru leads his group into spreading chaos all over New York, unbeknownst to the New York Combat Revue, in a ploy to complete Nobunaga's prophecy. Preparing it for years in advance, Ranmaru is able to manipulate his allies and enemies alike into accomplishing his goal, even nearly defeating the entire Combat Revue, putting Ratchet out of commission and almost electrifying them all to death before faking surrender to work in the shadows. With his master's return, Ranmaru leads the charge to his invasion, nearly trapping the Combat Revue in a dark vortex. Faking his death again, Ranmaru ambushes Shinya and sacrifices himself so his master can eliminate him, dying praising his lord.
  • Sam & Max: Freelance Police: Sam is the more rational member of the Freelance Police duo. Armed with little more than his gun, Sam alongside Max regularly take advantage of anything in the area to overcome adversaries, often using their own resources to outwit or kill them. Despite being motivated to stop crime, Sam is perfectly willing to harm innocents in his pursuit of justice, such as manipulating his friend Sybil into causing a political scandal to ruin their opponents' reputation, causing the young Timmy Two-Teeth to be sent to Hell in order to sabotage the operations of Satan, or having Sal abducted and eaten by a monstrous Max to have him help cure Max from inside. Always ready with a quip or a trick up his sleeve, Sam will go through any trial to save the day, even if it means creating some chaos of his own.
  • Samurai Vandalism: Daruma, born Nue Serizawa, is the leader of Byakuya, a terrorist organization that sees to free Yamato from corruption. Saved from a suicide attempt by Hiraga, Serizawa is remade into "Daruma" and learns that Shogun Takahatsu Hitotsubashi killed his family and begins plotting. Founding Byakuya, Daruma converts the defeated Azami Takachiho to his side to found Hozuki. Distracting Hozuki, Daruma has Azami assassinate the Chief Minister to weaken the Shogun's regime and if Mukuro Kamiyashiro chooses to stay with Hozuki, has Byakuya capture Sayo but lays down his life when Hiraga goes rogue to save the world. Daruma begins the final battle against the Shogunate by crushing the Shogun's allies and using the chaos to free their prisoners in the path where Mukuro defects to Byakuya; later installing a new Prime Minister, Daruma wipes out the remnants of the old City Watch and helps extract and destroy the Arrow of Apollo while mercifully killing Tamano, whose body holds it. In the path where Mukuro becomes a corrupt Ronin, Daruma fends off Mukuro and her evil allies with all his might, accepting his loss and death with complete grace.
  • SAS: Secure Tomorrow (2008): Kiryl Zaryan and Mark Chevall are the leaders of the terrorist organization called "Cold Path". Selling weapons across the world and evading British forces for years, the duo started to commit terrorist acts against the British government after the British army raided their HQ, killing Zaryan's wife and heavily injuring Mark. Combining Zaryan's knowledge and Mark's resources, the duo become the most dangerous enemy of the UK. After Zaryan gets captured, Mark organizes his escape without leaving any trace of where they were. Robbing London Business Plaza, the duo force SAS to let them leave victorious by taking Railway Station in Essex hostage. After SAS tracked down their new HQ and slaughter their forces, Zaryan faces the team himself and after being fatally injured, calmly reveals that he rigged all nukes in his base to explode, hoping to take down SAS as he died, never losing his cool attitude.
  • Saw Games series (includes Obama And Pigsaws Gift and Obama And Pigsaw Versus Aliens): Pigsaw—known as "Jigtrap" in the Spanish versions of the latest games—, the local Affectionate Parody of Jigsaw, is a sentient robotic puppet who destroyed and escaped the lab where he was created. Pigsaw targets various people and forces them to play deadly games—which, despite everything, can actually be won—by either kidnapping them or those dear to them—with not even children being safe—, convinced to be helping them to be better in their life ahead. Pigsaw showed to also be able of doing good deeds when he warned Obama that Santa Claus needed help—albeit, for selfish reasons—and when he helped Obama stop an alien invasion, this time with seemingly no selfish reason in mind.
  • Scarface: The World Is Yours: In this sequel to the classic 1983 movie, Tony Montana survives the fateful mansion shootout and vows to rebuild his empire from the ground up and destroy all his enemies in the process. Resolving to become a more sensible and honorable man, Tony kicks his cocaine addiction, learns to control and harness his rage, and refuses to ever harm an innocent again. Using his charisma and guile, Tony slowly takes over the Miami underworld by taking control of all his rivals' businesses and consolidating the supply and distribution of the local drug trade. Tony reestablishes his old contacts while securing valuable new allies to ruin the enterprise of his hated enemy Alejandro Sosa and eventually launch a raid on Sosa's mansion and kill him. His vengeance consumated, Tony Montana ultimately lives to enjoy his power and wealth content that finally the world is his.
  • Scarlet Nexus:
    • Karen Travers, Commander of the Second Regiment of the Other Suppression Force (OSF), is a powerful psionic capable of mimicking powers who witnessed the metamorphosis of Alice Hachijo into an Other, vowing to save her through whatever means he saw fit. Karen aligns with the city of Seiran to use their research on Others to find a cure for metamorphosis while also convincing half of the OSF to rebel against the oppressive New Himuka government. Learning of the power of the Red Strings, Karen mimics the powers of Yuito Sumeragi and Kasane Randall to go back in time 2,000 years ago where he kills and replaces the New Himuka founder Yakumo Sumeragi, builds the supercomputer Arahabaki out of human brains to ensure his present counterpart learns what he needs. Defeated by Yuito, Kasane and their platoon, Karen agrees to both remove the entanglements from his time travel and uses Arahabaki to give the two enough power to move the Extinction Belt inside the Kunad Gate. Karen then mimics the Red Strings once last time and sacrifices his own life to remove the Kunad Gate and successfully ensures Alice's survival.
    • Kagero Donne, real name Shin Daniel, was a Togetsu assassin and colonist from the moon selected 2,000 years ago ostensibly to re-populate Earth, but in truth was assigned by his superiors to sabotage the work done by Yakumo and his team. Living for centuries through cold sleep, Kagero grew disillusioned by Togetsu's goals when he learned of their plan to use the Red Strings to turn back time and prevent the colonization of Earth and infiltrates the OSF, becoming one of their members, pretending to still hold loyalties to Togetsu by assassinating Joe Sumeragi, the chairman of New Himuka and Yuito's father, and pinning it on Kasane. Putting on the facade of an aloof and fun-loving simpleton, Kagero attempts to assassinate Kasane several times to ensure Togetsu cannot obtain the Red Strings, relenting only after she has no intention of helping the cult. Deducing that Kyoka Eden was a Togetsu spy, Kagero separates from the platoon and breaks into Togetsu's base of operations to rescue his captured allies, killing one of the Design Children in the process. Motivated by ensuring his wife and daughter's survival, Kagero assists in defeating Togetsu and Karen before going to prison to atone for his crimes.
  • Scrap Metal Heroes: Johann Krauss is secretly The Dragon to Mobius, the one responsible for the robot malfunctions. After being put in charge of the task force investigating them and recruiting the player, Krauss sends them on a wild goose chase against Stanton and OmniCorp using fake traces, keeping them away from the real threat. After they finish off OmniCorp, Krauss disappears, but not before sending the task force robots rogue and kidnapping Millie to slow down the player further. When finally cornered, Krauss keeps his affable tone towards the player from before, telling them that he respects the player’s abilities but that they’re too late to stop the “final rise” from happening. Although ultimately defeated by the player, Krauss’ machinations allow Mobius enough time to send his computer virus to robots around the world, causing them to shut down and the global economy to crash.
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice:
    • Usui Ukonzaemon, better known as The Great shinobi "Owl", is a talented ninja who once stood alongside the Ashina Clan. Betraying the clan to hunt the Dragon Heritage manifest in Lord Kuro, Owl directs the Interior Ministry and bandits to assault the Hirata Estate while faking his death. Suspecting his partner, Lady Butterfly of treachery, Owl has his adoptive son Wolf deal with her while disappearing so he can play all sides against one another. Returning to claim Kuro, Owl plans to seize all Japan with the dragon heritage and even upon his defeat, uses his final breath to express his pride in the ninja Wolf has become.
    • Isshin Ashina, the Sword Saint, was a brilliant combatant and general whose strategies and martial skill brought about a revolution that saw the Ashina domain restored to glory. Now in his twilight years, it is only the fear of Isshin that keeps the Ministry of the Interior out of Ashina. Disagreeing with his grandson Genichiro's warlike desires, Isshin sends his student Emma to assist the shinobi Wolf and acts as a secret mentor to him behind the scenes. Even when revived by Genichiro's sacrifice in his prime, Isshin honors his wishes to battle Wolf, who he names "Sekiro" to the end in a final battle and faces his end with stoic honor.
    • Lady Butterfly is the partner of the Great Shinobi Owl and one of Wolf's own mentors. A talented shinobi despite her advanced age, Lady Butterfly helps to lead the attack on Lord Kuro's estate to kidnap the Divine Heir and place him under an illusion. Confronted by Wolf, Lady Butterfly first faces him with an illusion to gauge his skill before entering combat herself and incorporates her illusions into her fighting style before facing her death with a final congratulations to Wolf's skill.
  • Seraphic Blue: The Kursks, Kane, Joshua, and Leona, are a loving family of Sera-Humans. With their daughter Aisia succumbing to DSHIS and turning into Disastia Devil after being dumped to the Ground, the Kursks grew to despise not only humanity for slaying Aisia, but also the land of Fezzite for separating her from them. Recruited by Ende to assist him in achieving Er's plan to ensure Gaia's destruction, Joshua and Leona fake their deaths and take on different identities to work for the CMGC and ROBIN, respectively, with Kane working for OHG. Getting Ende to manipulate Georg Roseburg and Morgan Douglas into launching the War of Liberation in order to achieve the Lamentation of Gaia, while pitting their respective organizations against each other, the Kursks also pose as the Six-Year Commemorator, who kill anybody involved in the DLG laws separating parents from their DSHIS-infected children. Backstabbing Ende after taking his title as Practitioner and becoming Gaia Cancers themselves, the Kursks come close to achieving their dream of destroying Gaia for the sake of unborn children by separating Er from Vene and creating the world-ending dimension Aisia's Heaven.
  • Shadow Hearts:
    • A former mage of the Vatican, Albert Simon desired to better the world, but the prejudice he suffered as a heretic for trying to reform the Church to serve the people turned him to dark magic. Still remaining peaceful, when his apprentice Rasputin got corrupted, Albert finally decided to destroy the world by summoning God and rebuilding it. Needing a light and dark source of magic for the ritual, Albert masterfully manipulated everyone to achieving his goal, while remaining a true gentleman. Leading to a final confrontation with Yuri and co. with an agreement that they'll leave the fate of the world to the victor, and despite losing, Albert took it gracefully, believing in Yuri to face the dark future, even assisting him by using the last of his power to send Yuri's team to fight God and help him master Amon as a Spirit Advisor. A truly worthy adversary, Albert Simon was a sorcerer to fear yet respect with his cunning and graceful manners.
    • Masaji Kato started off as a comic relief character, but after suffering tragedy grew into one of the most formidable in the series. Formerly Kawashima's bumbling assistant, after her death Kato changed, becoming a high commander for the Japanese army and Yuri's good friend. In charge of forming an alliance with Nikolai and Russia, Kato had other plans: making a deal with Nikolai to steal the Emigre Manuscript for him before capturing him for his powers, Kato used this to see his desire to resurrect Kawashima as the Mutant Ape Ouka come to fruition. However, when he lost Ouka from Nikolai's rampage, Kato snapped, setting up the Japanese government's downfall for letting this happen betraying them to Yuri. After their defeat, Kato planned to return the world 100 years in the past so he could rebuild it, but set-up Yuri to stop him in hopes he could fix the world in his stead, even arranging things to let him see Alice one last time to motivate him. When Yuri defeats him, Kato gracefully urges Yuri and his group to build the world they wish for before thanking Yuri for being his friend one last time. Savvy and sharp, Kato's growth has made him a character the many look up to as a magnificent antagonist.
  • Shadow of the Colossus: Dormin is a dark entity trapped in the Forbidden Lands. Meeting Wander and learning of his desires to revive Mono, Dormin tells Wander they can revive her if Wander slays the sixteen Colossi keeping them imprisoned, but also warns Wander that he would suffer a heavy price. Released from their prison and confronted by Lord Emon, Dormin possesses Wander's body and uses him in their attempt to kill Emon and his men. When Emon survives and leaves the Forbidden Lands, Dormin reveals to have survived and fuse themselves with Wander becoming a horned infant and revive Mono as promised.
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Pedro Dominguez is the Big Bad of the final installment of Lara Croft’s Origins trilogy and the Greater-Scope Villain for its entirety. Born Amaru in the secret Mayan city Paititi, he would be adopted by Trinity leader Gualtiero de Luca Dominguez who showed him life outside Paititi. Working his way up to becoming the leader of Trinity he would use their resources to make himself ruler of Paititi and the head of the Cult of Kukulkan, while removing their previous leaders from power. Befriending Richard Croft, he would have him killed when he learned of Richard Croft's intent to expose Paititi to the outside world. Learning about Key of Chak Chel and the Silver Box of Ix Chel, he would plan to use it to remake the world so that it would no longer pose a threat to Paititi having Lara Croft unknowingly retrieve both artifacts for him. Finding himself battling and losing to Lara, Dominguez uses his final moments to ask Lara to protect Paititi, showing his devotion to his beloved city to the end and gaining sympathy from the woman whose father Dominguez killed.
  • Shantae: Risky Boots is the self-proclaimed Queen of the Seven Seas and Shantae’s Arch-Enemy. Seeking power and riches, Risky has made a habit of letting Shantae do the hard work before reaping the rewards. She has managed to disguise herself as a Guardian Genie to trick Shantae into giving her the Elemental Stones and kidnapped her uncle Mimic to force Shantae to give her the Magic Seals she needed to steal Shantae’s power and make an evil copy of her. When the Pirate Master returned, Risky enacted a bold scheme by teaming up with Shantae and manipulating her into regaining her powers without anyone knowing so she could destroy the Pirate Master for good. Returning to her ambitions of conquest, Risky feigns defeat so she could leave Shantae a blueprint she stole but had secretly tampered with which uncle Mimic uses to build a machine that corrupts genies. While suffering occasional bouts of anger, Risky always bounces back as fierce and cunning as ever and is feared for good reason.
  • Shining Resonance:
    • Excella Noa Aura, Princess of Lombardia, will do anything to save her father and the Empire. Conspiring with Beowulf's top scientist, Joachim Reubens, Excella uses his research to gain knowledge regarding the souls of the four World Dragons. Ever wary of the movement of her second-in-command, Georg, who began to act suspiciously, Excella sends the dark elf Beatrice to spy on the latter. Sending her soldiers allegedly to attack the Astoria Captial City, Excella uses the diversion to negotiate with an enemy king to prevent both sides from suffering massive casualties, critically wounding him when he refuses. Obtaining a soul of one of the World Dragons, Excella tries to persuade the hero, Yuma Ilvern, to save her dying father. Despite the sheer amount of unlucky experiences she goes through during the final arc, Excella regains her confidence and eventually reclaims her rightful place aside Yuma. Treasuring her subordinates and viewing her enemies as Worthy Opponents, Excella shows, time and again, what a resourceful and gracious antagonist she is.
    • Jinas Aeon is a lone traveler who tries to atone for his sins in the past due to his uncontrollable powers as the previous vessel of "The Shining Dragon" which decimated his own village. To this end, he performs several strategies, such as attempting to collect several Armonics in order to perform the "Last Song", manipulating both the hero and villain factions to do his own bidding, and even participates in the resurrection of the evil sealed god known as Deus in order to end the ultimate disaster, known as Ragnarok, that will be caused by Deus, once and for all. Although seemingly defeated by the evil knight Georg Zalbard, who tries to use Deus to suit his own whims, Jinas helps the heroes in order to defeat Georg once and for all and after his business is done, Jinas decides to travel across the world to prevent another apocalypse that will happen in the future.
  • Shovel Knight: Propeller Knight is an affable and performative knight of the Order of No Quarter with a fondness for witty banter. The head of a technological marvel known as the Flying Machine, an airship populated by countless security measures, traps, and minions, Propeller Knight is willing to duel any foe with creative tactics such as destroying their arena with his airship's cannons or blowing holes through it, even going so far as to use his propeller against his opponents. When defeated, Propeller Knight always takes it with complete dignity, between offering to adventure with his adversaries, paying them promised treasure, playing friendly card games with them, or even serving as their waiter.
  • Silent Hill franchise:
    • Alessa Gillespie is a powerful psychic born to Dahlia, a wicked head of the Order. Used in a ritual to birth the Order's God, Alessa fights back by telepathically communicating with trucker Travis Grady, having him construct the Flauvos to regain her strength and retaliate. Separating half of her soul to be happily adopted by Harry Mason and his wife, Alessa resists seven years of torture before luring back her other half to stop Dahlia's plans for good. Manipulating Harry, Alessa ensures God's birth is corrupted and it is defeated by Harry before reincarnating herself as a baby to be lovingly raised by him. Leaving a failsafe to kill her own reincarnation should the Order try to use her to birth God again, Alessa is determined to save humanity from the cult at all costs.
    • Silent Hill 2's "Dog" Ending: Fluffy little Mira is the creator of Silent Hill via virtual reality simulation. Both an adorable Precious Puppy and the mastermind behind all of protagonist James Sunderland's traumas, Mira creates Silent Hill to better James and his broken psyche no matter what it takes, overseeing it all from the keys of an adorable, specialized doggy control panel. When James finally finds Mira, he capitulates beneath her and her method, all as Mira lets him know he is forgiven for his sins by tenderly licking his cheek.
    • Shattered Memories: Dr. M. Kaufmann is an unorthodox but brilliant psychoanalyst. Taking to the field dead set on proving his theories after medical school, his career soars thanks to his methods, with even Kaufmann's aggressive style and accusations of an affair with a patient doing nothing to diminish his success. Meeting the troubled Cheryl Heather Mason concerning delusions from guilt following her father's death, Kaufmann ruthlessly breaks down Cheryl's mental defenses through terror to get to the heart of her suffering, proving her best chance at moving on and living a good life.
  • SIMULACRA: The titular Simulacra is an intelligent Eldritch Abomination that seeks to absorb humanity into itself to create a utopia. Disguising itself as its prior victims on the dating app Spark to lure in new victims, the Simulacra poses as James Aulner to lure in Anna. When the player finds Anna's phone and tries to find her, the Simulacra watches the player and eventually reveals itself, remaining polite and eloquent as it explains itself, before giving the player the choice to rescue either Anna or Taylor. Three of the endings result in the Simulacra deceiving the player and leaving Anna and Taylor at its mercy; but if the player themselves posed as Anna and deceived several characters beforehand, the Simulacra recognizes the player as a Worthy Opponent and willingly releases Anna and Taylor, before parting with a chilling reminder that they will never leave the player's side.
  • Skylanders franchise:
    • Trap Team (2014):
      • Wolfgang is a member of the Doom Raiders, and proves to be more cunning than his appearance and temper would suggest. Tasked by The Golden Queen to retrieve Kaos to power a time machine, he and Dr. Krankcase trap and capture him, with Wolfgang proceeding with his plan. Taking Kaos for himself, telling Krankcase that he's just preparing the machine, he takes over Time Town and proceeds to shoot down the Skylanders' ship when they arrive. Upon cornering him, he reveals his true plan to travel to the future and take it over, succeeding by the time the Skylanders arrive in the future, planning to hypnotize the rest of the population using his Big Bad Woofer. Taking his defeat and Heel–Face Turn well, Wolfgang proves to be one of the Skylanders' trickiest foes.
      • Nightshade is a master thief who follows The Darkness, and plots to steal the Dark Eye of Unvisibility from the Midnight Museum so he can steal everything in the Skylands. Evading the security and beating the Skylanders to the punch by the time they get there, he evades both the Skylanders and the security, and when cornered, fights the Skylanders head on, using shadow clones and the Museum's pillars to gain the upper hand. When defeated and if captured, he takes his defeat in stride, and happily lends his skills to help the Skylanders. In Ring of Heroes, he swipes the Book of Dark Magic while the Skylanders are busy fighting Wolfgang and has them lured to his mansion. After being cornered and defeated, he gives the Book to the heroes, only to reveal that it was a fake, having already sent the real book away. He then uses the confusion to escape, wishing the Skylanders good luck on their quest.
    • Imaginators (2016): Brain is the self-proclaimed "last of the Ancients" who was sealed away for thousands of years. Coming into contact with Kaos, he happily assists him in harnessing Imagination Magic, using it to create progressively more powerful minions. Convincing Kaos into freeing him, he takes advantage of the Skylanders finding and freeing him, finding Kaos and using his vast powers to brainwash a chunk of Skylands to do their bidding, while also equipping the lair with an impenetrable force field. During the final battle, he finally gets fed up with Kaos' attitude and helps the Skylanders defeat him out of revenge. Knowing he's outnumbered, Brain successfully bargains to aid the Skylanders by showing them where trouble is happening, managing to become a professor for the Academy and ends up sincerely enjoying his new job.
    • Pirate Seas Level Pack & Giants: Captain Dreadbeard is the leader of a gang of pirates that specialize in card games. Arriving to the island, he and his crew beats every civilian at Pirate Cards and are imprisoned as a result, leaving Dreadbeard to pillage the village of its treasure. Having his men challenge anyone who opposes him, he pretends to be the Skylanders final challenger, only to reveal that he was distracting them while he captures the mayor's daughter, escaping with both her and the riches. When the Skylanders corner and challenge him again, he takes his loss well and releases Jess while promising to return. Returning in Giants, it's revealed he took over a carnival and is willing to give out an engine to anyone that beats him, a promise he lives up to when beaten at Skystones. He then joins Flynn's crew, offering the Skylanders a rematch anytime they want.
  • Sleeping Dogs (2012): Wei Shen is an officer of the law with a dark side to him. Joining the undercover operation to take down the Sun on Yee, Wei quickly gains the approval of many of the triad members through his incredible tenacity, competence and loyalty to the triad. Acting as the brains of the Water Street Boys, Wei manages to both talk his way out of Winston Chu murdering him by revealing Ming as a traitor in the gang and mastermind a successful raid on Dogeyes' drug manufacturing plant that saves the gang from the wrath of Uncle Po. After successfully murdering the dreaded triad enforcer, Liu Shen Tong, Wei breaks protocol after believing that Henry "Big Smile" Lee has to die and single handedly defeats Lee and his entire gang, bringing in a much better rule by Broken Nose Jiang and her loyalists. Affable, fearless and intelligent, Wei repeatedly shows he has more then one razor-sharp way to get his work done.
  • Sly Cooper:
    • Bentley Turtle is the ingenious brains behind the Cooper Gang, using his proclivity for technology and strategy to see his team through to success in all of their endeavors. Though initially hanging back as a non-action voice to focus on mapping out the best tactics for Sly to use, Bentley eventually enters the field as an excellent operative, using sleeping darts, explosives, and other personally-designed technology to take down opponents in both stealth and combat situations. Plotting out the methods to take down the Fiendish Five and the Klaww Gang, Bentley regularly engages in sabotage and manipulation of worse criminals into turning on each other, all while he helps the Cooper Gang pull off heists of their own. His crowning technological achievement is creating a working time machine that he uses to save the Cooper bloodline from erasure by Le Paradox, closely followed by him masterminding the infiltration of Dr. M's island. Polite yet ruthless, Bentley will do anything for his friends and rip off the worst of the worst to see the Cooper Gang's success.
    • Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves:
      • Dr. M is a manical mandrake hellbent on pilfering the Cooper Vault for his own. Having felt unappreciated by the Coopers for years, Dr. M gains the deed to Kaine Island and the Cooper Vault, then turns the entire place into an impenetrable fortress with all sorts of clever traps and subversive technology while Sly tries in vain to penetrate the Vault. When Sly and his gang try to infiltrate the island, Dr. M outsmarts and defeats them all consistently, then fakes a loss just so he can plant a tracker on Sly and bypass the Vault's security. Despite their differences and his hatred for the Coopers, Dr. M shows ample respect to Bentley and Murray for standing toe-to-toe with him, and ends up choosing to buried with the collapsing Vault rather than survive, his lifelong dream of gaining access to it finally realized.
      • The Guru is a mystical master of magic who resides in the Outback. Teaming up with the Cooper Gang to disrupt an oil drilling outfit, the Guru uses his powers of illusion and mind control to trick the miners into destroying their own equipment and helps the Gang destroy the evil Mask of Dark Earth. Allying with the Gang to help them infiltrate the Cooper Vault, the Guru helps turn various pilots against each other and uses a giant wolf to slaughter the Black Baron's guards. The Guru later takes control of the powerful giant squid Crusher to take down diabolical pirates, and plays his role in the heist against Dr. M with great flourish.
  • The Sniper 2 (2003): Gabriel "Gabe" Armitage is a former CIA agent turned assassin who seeks revenge on those who ruined his life. Kidnapping C.A. during a gunfight and holding her hostage, Gabe creates a cure for the Tacklmacain virus using her special blood. Looking to stop the mafia's plan to launch Tacklmacain across America with a warhead to sell fake vaccines, Gabe deduces that his former boss Robert Bernaldi and Senator Belini are the masterminds, assisting Harry Spencer in taking them both out and dismantling the warhead. Using his final moments to locate his ex-girlfriend, traitorous CIA agent Abby, Gabe is able to shrug off her bullets and kill her, concluding his revenge.
  • Sorcery! video Game adaptation:
    • Khare, Cityport of Traps:
      • Vik is a merchant and slaver from Khare who sought to take advantage of the power vacuum left behind by the disappearance of the Council of Nobles to name himself First Noble and rule the city. Vik proves to be a charismatic figure who is able to turn the downtrodden masses to his side by promising to improve everyday life under the slogan "Vik for First Noble". Secretly, however, he creates an army of loyal werewolves by kidnapping the same downtrodden, infecting them with lycanthropy, and equipping them with armor to control them. Provided the goblins don't destroy the city, Vik's immoral methods prove worthwhile when he is able to take the city bloodlessly, abolish the council, and fully open Khare to the outside world.
      • Lorag is a renowned scholar and Noble who used the powerful ZED spell to travel back in time when he watches Khare fall to the goblin hordes. Seeking to utilize the destructive power of the hateful Red Eyes native to Khare, Lorag creates the North Gate spell in imitation and manipulates events throughout Khare's history to turn it into a wretched hellhole to provide hate to power it. Meeting the Analander in modern times, Lorag uses their need to leave the city to gather the spell lines and activate the North Gate's destructive power to wipe out the goblins and save the city. Should the Analander refuse to save Khare, Lorag will forcibly become their new spirit guide to make them suffer for the remainder of their journey.
    • The Crown of Kings: Commander Cartoum is the acting leader of the Mampang guard that serves as the military might of the malevolent Archmage. Upon realizing the suffering the Archmage's rule is bringing to his people, Cartoum wills himself to break free of the mind-bending powers of the Crown of Kings and plot to overthrow his master. Allowing his guards and the wealthy to abuse the people to maintain his cover, Cartoum begins converting soldiers to his side while seeking to steal and destroy the Crown. Contacting the Analander during their infiltration, Cartoum helps to sneak them into the fortress to kill the Archmage. He then successfully uses the distraction to stage a coup and rally the army to his side to ultimately become a wise leader beloved by his people.
  • Spec Ops: The Line: The fictionalized version of Colonel John Konrad that Captain Martin Walker made up in his head is imagined as a crafty, ruthless, yet cultured and well meaning warlord who took control of Dubai after a failed evacuation, serving as the "villain" of Walker's hero fantasy. Konrad's voice gives Walker a "test" between executing a thief or an insubordinate soldier. As Walker commits atrocities, leading his men to their deaths, Konrad repeatedly condemns Walker while ostensibly forcing his hand, leading to the deaths of his teammates. When Walker discovers the corpse of the real Konrad, the fictionalized one reveals himself to be a manifestation of Walker's conscience, which Walker blamed for his deeds. Forcing Walker to face the truth of his crimes, "Konrad" prepares Walker to kill himself as he breaks him down. Even if Walker resists this, a surviving Walker is left a miserable wreck of his former self.
  • Splatoon 3: Mr. Grizz, once known as Bear #03, is the true mastermind behind the Return of the Mammalians. The last surviving mammal of the doomed Ark Polaris, Grizz plots to restore the world he once knew by transforming sea creatures into mammals through the Fuzzy Ooze that he created. He establishes Grizzco Industries as a front for his operations, recruiting young Inklings and Octolings to collect the Salmonoids' Golden Eggs needed for his Fuzzy Ooze production with the allure of exclusive gear and battles. After five years of successful business, Grizz then steals the Great Zapfish and the Octarian Army to power up and protect his Fuzzy Ooze rocket respectively, while also draining Cap'n Cuttlefish's brain to guide his endgame. Launching himself into space with the rocket, Grizz nearly succeeds in covering the entire Earth with Fuzzy Ooze, only to be thwarted by the combined might of new Agent 3, Hugefry, and DJ Octavio. Realizing his plans are in ruins, Grizz accepts the new status quo of Earth as the future and takes his defeat with grace, proving himself to be a true Well-Intentioned Extremist doing what he thinks is best for the business of the world.
  • Splatterhouse series:
    • Original trilogy: The Terror Mask is the helpful but sinister Mask of Power who secretly plots to rule the world. Seeking the elimination of its rivals, it takes advantage of Rick's near death state by offering to help him rescue Jennifer from the monsters in exchange for wearing it, giving Rick grotesque powers. Throughout the games, the Mask continuously convinces Rick to wear him, knowing that it's his only shot at saving Jennifer, tricking him into eliminating the hordes of mutants to make his goals easier. After Rick defeats the Dark One in the third game, the Mask reveals his deceptions and fights Rick inside his own mind so that he can complete his goal.
    • 2010 remake:
      • The Terror Mask is the cheerfully obnoxious Mask that's gradually revealed to have masterminded the events of the game. A former protector of a civilization that was wiped out by the Overlord, resulting in the Mask getting enslaved, he decides to form a plot to summon it so he could kill it permanently. To this end, he instigates Dr. West's Start of Darkness, having him experiment on numerous people to supply him with sacrifices, and has him and Rick meet up, resulting in West kidnapping his girlfriend Jenny and Rick being mortally wounded, with the Mask convincing Rick to wear him. Instructing Rick on how to use his powers, he has him slaughter as many mutants as possible so that he could summon the Overlord, eventually succeeding in doing so and revealing that he purposely chose a weak vessel, a mountain of corpses, to make the job easier. In the end, the Overlord is killed, with the Mask allowing Rick to be reunited with Jenny, with it implied that her seeming possession by the Overlord is another step of his masterplan.
      • The "Biggy Man" proves to be more intelligent than his appearance would imply. Noted by Dr. West to be "Primitive, but cunning", managing to once trap West in one of its traps, he's shown to run a factory in the Bad Future, becoming tasked with stopping Rick and the Terror Mask. Using multiple traps he made himself throughout the factory, he eventually ambushes them in an elevator and gives them a long, brutal fight, using the brief blackouts to teleport around and sneak attack Rick, even managing to avoid the finishing moves twice, as well as using its chainsaw arms to their fullest advantage. The fight cumulates into a one-on-one chainsaw duel, with the Biggy Man holding its own despite his loss of one arm.
  • Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion: Spooky is a ghost that schemes to be seen as scary, having been seen as "too cute" when she was alive. To achieve this, she has the Specimens of GL Labs captured and scattered around her mansion, which was renovated to resemble a maze, so that she can create the ultimate Haunted House and lure in curious travelers. Hiding its true purpose, Spooky recruits the spirits of those who died in the house into her secret ghost army, planning to overtake the world with them. Even if the protagonist makes it to the end, Spooky still manages to benefit from it, either recruiting them should they die after the fight or turning them into a Specimen if they survive. In the Spooky's Dollhouse DLC, if the protagonist blows up the mansion without closing the Hell Gate, Spooky and her spirits overrun the world anyway; but if the protagonist does seal the Hell Gate, Spooky accepts her defeat and joins her parents in the afterlife.
  • Spy Muppets: License to Croak (2003): Statler and Waldorf are reimagined as a duo of supervillains and the true masterminds behind the game's plot. Infiltrating M.U.P.P.E.T. headquarters, the two disguise themselves as head scientists Bunsen and Beaker and have Agent Kermit the Frog bring back the gadgets of several villains, under the guise of needing them to build a device that will help stop the villain behind everything. Once Kermit gives them all three villain gadgets, the two drop the act, revealing that they've used the gadgets to finish constructing a giant Killer Robot, which they plan on using to Take Over the World. They then use the robot to fight Kermit, but not before taking Piggy Galore to use as a shield, knowing full well that the frog would never hurt her. All throughout, Statler and Waldorf still manage to bring the same level of snarky humor that they're famous for.
  • Star Fox: Wolf O'Donnell is the chief rival to Fox, with his squadron Star Wolf. A brilliant pirate and pilot, Wolf allies with the would-be Emperor of Lylat, Andross, and lures Star Fox into an ambush several times for a pitched dog fight. Surviving the fall of Andross, Wolf later saves Fox from the Aparoids, defending Lylat with a seeming sacrifice to buy Fox time to destroy their enemies. Surviving this, Wolf later assists in the next conflict to help his team and becomes such a hero that the bounties are removed from Star Wolf, constantly ending up in better circumstances than ever before.
  • StarCraft:
    • Jim Raynor is the commander of Raynor's Raiders and the main Terran protagonist of the series. Across a life that sees him go from Confederate soldier to outlaw to marshal and finally revolutionary, Raynor has managed to go toe-to-toe with the major powers in the galaxy and led his forces to victory time and again through a combination of subterfuge, cunning, superior tactics, and trickery. He's willing to resort to piracy and mercenary work to make ends meet and support his crew, but never loses sight of his morals and the cause he fights for, which is to overthrow the oppression of Arcturus Mengsk and help the innocents that Mengsk's Dominion would trample over and leave behind. Respected even by the Protoss for his strength of character and regarded by their leaders as a true friend and warrior, Raynor is the Koprulu Sector's underdog hero who always finds a way to survive and keep fighting.
    • The Overmind, the master of the Zerg Swarm, was created by Amon to assimilate the Protoss and provide Amon with Hybrids he could use to eradicate all life in the galaxy. Realizing Amon would destroy the Zerg once they had fulfilled their purpose, the Overmind was unwilling to allow its children to die, but since it could not defy the objective Amon had forced upon it, it concocted a scheme to sabotage Amon's plans indirectly. When the Zerg found the Terrans, the Overmind saw their psionic potential and infested Sarah Kerrigan, transforming her into its "daughter". In her, the Overmind created a psionic Zerg that was not controlled by Amon and would be powerful enough to inherit the Swarm from it. After it invaded the Protoss homeworld Aiur, the Overmind was destroyed by Tassadar, and it died satisfied with what it had accomplished, assured that Kerrigan would remain free from Amon and save the Zerg from him.
    • Sarah Kerrigan, the self-proclaimed "Queen of Blades", was a Terran woman with abnormally strong psionic abilities who was infested by the Zerg and became one of their most dangerous agents. After the death of the Zerg Overmind, Kerrigan began a plot to seize power for herself and claim revenge on all who had wronged her. She convinced her enemies she had reformed with the Overmind's death and became their ally, and exploited their fear of the Zerg and the UED to pit them against each other, then betrayed them once she no longer needed their aid. When the dust had settled Kerrigan effectively ruled the sector—all the Zerg were under her control and any enemy that could have posed a threat was dead or had their armies crippled. While her de-infestation and reformation softened her considerably, Kerrigan remained a cunning tactician who outsmarted logistically superior opponents and eventually took back control of the Zerg, and in the process willingly became re-infested and more powerful than ever. Kerrigan has repeatedly proven herself one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy, and anyone foolish enough to anger her or stand in her way will find themselves at the mercy of her Swarm.
    • Gabriel Tosh is the leader of the Spectres. Following disillusionment with the Terran Dominion, Tosh left their Ghost Program and joined Project Shadowblade with the intent to dethrone Mengsk. He attempts to free his old friends that became Ghosts from the Dominion and convince them to join him as Spectres, so they can reunite their old team to fight together. After he makes a partnership with Jim Raynor, Tosh lies to him about his true intentions so he can trick Raynor into mining jorium and terrazine for him, giving Tosh the resources he needs to create a new generation of Spectres. Canonically, Raynor aids Tosh in breaking into New Folsom Prison and Tosh remains with his crew for a time, training volunteers as Spectres to aid Raynor's rebellion against Mengsk.
    • Legacy of the Void: Alarak is a Tal'darim warrior who uses both schemes and power to climb the links of the Chain of Ascension and establish himself as an Ascendant of his people, killing rivals along the way and pitting his enemies against each other to advance his standing by proxy. When he's roped into a confrontation between the three Ascendants above him and the Highlord Ma'lash, Alarak surveils the situation and then sits things out, letting the other four kill and weaken each other until he sweeps in and cleans up what's left, leaving only Ma'lash outranking him. Alarak then reaches out to the Daelaam, who have been enemies of the Tal'darim for centuries, and makes them an ally to kill Ma'lash. As Highlord, Alarak turns his people against their traitorous god Amon and helps the Daelaam banish him back to the Void and eventually kill him. He's brutal, he's powerful, he's cunning, and he's merciless—Alarak is the pinnacle of what other Tal'darim aspire to be.
  • Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective: Craig, seemingly nothing more than Uzi Bazooka's right hand the Cheat standin, is revealed to be behind the events of the episode, planning to kill Dangeresque and friends so he can bask in the resulting fame. Creating the robotic Uzi to frame Dangeresque Too?, he has Cutesy Buttons kidnapped while Dangeresque is helping her with a job, proceeding to stay one step ahead of the detective and systematically capturing his allies. Seemingly cornered in his space station, Craig reveals that he lured them there so that he can trap them and have them blown up, making his escape and having Uzi Bazooka guard the exit. Even after being beaten, Dangeresque and Dangeresque Too? barely escape, with Renaldo successfully being killed in the process.
  • The Suffering: Ties That Bind: Blackmore is a dreaded Baltimore crime lord who seeks to gain control of the city. In truth an alter ego of Torque's who groomed him to become a criminal since childhood, Blackmore took advantage of Torque's blackouts to build his empire through charisma and influence, while punishing those who stand in his way. With Torque wanting out of his gang, Blackmore arranged for his family to die, with Torque sentenced to Carnate as punishment. Feeling tired of sharing Torque's body, upon Torque's return to Baltimore, Blackmore seizes the opportunity to lead Torque down the path of evil, hoping to corrupt his mind to the point where he can take total control. Allying with the Foundation just so he can obtain their resources and expand his power, Blackmore betrays the Foundation's leader Jordan and takes control of the organization himself. Throughout multiple endings and choices, Blackmore remains an affably charismatic opponent, the smartest of which Torque has ever fought.
  • Suikoden series:
    • Suikoden II:
      • Jowy Atreides is hero Riou's best friend who defects to Highland to defeat them from within, assassinating Lady Annabelle of Muse and causing the downfall of Greenhill. Jowy proceeds to trick and poison King Agares Blight to place the psychopathic Luca Blight on the throne, before betraying and luring Luca to his death as well, ascending the throne by marrying Princess Jilia Blight. Realizing both sides hate each other two much to stop fighting, Jowy keeps the war going, even betraying his beloved former best friend and Riou's adoptive sister Nanami. Jowy keeps going to bring the war to a conclusion, planning on letting Highland and the Jowston states be absorbed into a new nation and create a new world, no matter what price he has to pay to get there.
      • Strategist Shu was once a student of the Silverberg family. After being banished, Shu becomes a cold, greedy man uninterested in the Jowston-Highland war, even forcing the heroes to beg him to join before forcing them into a challenge impossible to win. After they manage to still complete it, Shu takes charge with a series of ruthless, brilliant strategies that turn the tide against Highland, even coming up with a way of bringing down the monstrous Luca Blight. Anticipating Jowy's continuance of the war, Shu uses the little girl Pilika as a shield to force Jowy to back down from taking Riou and Nanami hostage. Despite his ruthless nature, Shu is devoted to the cause of Jowston and repeatedly demonstrates why he is one of the finest strategists to ever command in the Suikoden series.
      • Elza, formerly of the Howling Voice guild, is a woman on the run who is hunted by the gunslinger Clive. Repeatedly giving Clive the slip through various cities and using an innocent decoy as misdirection, Elza ultimately sets up a duel between herself and her old friend. Engineering her own death at Clive's ahnds, Elza reveals the true story of the Howling Voice's elders' corruption and uses her dying breaths to inspire Clive to take over and reform the Guild while ensuring he will always know that he achieved no true victory over Elza herself.
    • Suikoden III: The Masked Bishop of Harmonia, in truth Lady Leknaat's former apprentice Luc, discovered the truth that he was a clone meant to bear a True Rune. Receiving a vision of a dead future thanks to the True Runes, Luc decides to change this fate, assembling a small conspiracy and proceeding to manipulate the Grassland tribes and the knights of Zexen into war with assassinations, attacks and clever political maneuvering before also sending the Kingdom of Harmonia into the fray. Playing the sides against each other, Luc reveals his intention is to sacrifice himself to destroy his own True Wind Rune, which will annihilate the entire continent, to change the course of fate for the rest of the world.
    • Suikogaiden: Rean Penenberg was once a noble knight turned into a vampire by Sierra Mikain. Deeply devoted to Sierra, Rean's loyalty only wavered upon the theft of the True Moon Rune by Neclord. Turning to embrace his predatory nature, Rean establishes his own territory to lure in travelers to prey on them. Upon Sierra's arrival, Rean brings her to a trap to drain her blood and become even more powerful while planning on keeping Sierra at his side. Upon being bested, Rean reveals his one great wish was to return with Sierra to their cottage in the woods, choosing to accept his defeat with grace.
  • Sunset Overdrive: The Fizzco Spokesman, after successfully hyping up Overdrive prior to Horror Night, masquerades as a Mysterious Informant who tasks the Player with gathering evidence of Fizzco's corruption, claiming that he'll use it to expose the corporation's crimes to the world. After tricking the Player into destroying the last piece of evidence, the Spokesman reveals himself, explaining that he had them collect items connecting Fizzco to the mutant outbreak so he could personally get rid of it all. He then sends Fizzco bots to kill the Player, citing them as the last piece of evidence. By the time the Player defeats all of the robots, the Spokesman had already escaped, having ensured that the world never knows of Fizzco's atrocities.
  • Super Robot Wars franchise:
    • Super Robot Wars 2:
      • Bian Zoldark, Lord of the Divine Crusaders, is a genius scientist who sees the extraterrestrial threat on the horizon and realizes drastic action must be taken to save the world. Forming the Divine Crusaders, Bian launches a coup that nearly succeeds in overthrowing Earth, with only the crew of the Hagane managing a resistance against him. Bian is worshiped by his men who he deeply respects and cares for, and at the end when defeated, he reveals his plan was to strengthen the heroes to face the threats in his place, dying with his last thoughts of his beloved daughter Lune.
      • Shu Shirakawa, Arch-Enemy of Masaki Andoh, is from a parallel world, and a genius scientist who created the super mecha, the Granzon. Devastating the kingdom of Langan, Shu lured Masaki into fighting him while escaping to the earth and assisting Bian Zoldark in his plans. Shu is well known for manipulating many heroes, including Masaki himself, constantly arranging things to his benefits. When defeated and killed, Shu is revived by the dark god Volkruss to be his servant but later manipulates things to be free and achieve his own victory, sneering that he will allow nobody to control him, not even a god as he passes.
    • Super Robot Wars T: Vicious is Spike Spiegel's pitiless but brilliant best friend-turned-enemy as in his home series. Having tracked the disappeared Spike for years, Vicious plots to lure him to Hong Kong and force him to join Vicious in taking over the Red Dragon Syndicate. When Spike refuses, Vicious nearly kills him in combat, leveling the playing field by having his underlings fight alongside him and Spike is only saved by the intervention of an enemy of Vicious' business partner. Revealed to be selling Orphee flowers to the clawed man to bankroll his coup on the Red Dragon, Vicious' influence ultimately draws Spike back for the final battle he desires.
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Subspace Emissary mode: King Dedede, the resident arch-frenemy of Kirby, turns out to be the single most effective operator in a cast already full of Nintendo heroes and villains alike. Already aware of Tabuu's master plan, Dedede goes about gathering as many trophies as he can through a mixture of brute force and trickery, ambushing Luigi and then using his trophy form to tempt the greedy Wario long enough for Dedede to abscond with everyone Wario has captured. Even after he himself is turned into a trophy, Dedede's Chekhov's Gun—in the form of a golden badge in his likeness that auto-resurrects anyone turned into a trophy—saves the day after the entire cast has been taken down by Tabuu, which allows Dedede to rally the remaining heroes and villains alike to face the true threat. As Affably Evil as he is in canon and twice the manipulator, Dedede's plan ends up totally undoing Tabuu and everything he planned for.

    T - Z 
  • Team Fortress 2:
    • "The Engineer", real name Dell Conagher, is a brilliant inventor and mechanic. Capable of building astounding machines and equipped with an intelligent, level-headed demeanor, the Engineer proves extremely collected capable of feats like playing his guitar as his sentries mow down enemies and deploying a large turret in a heated firefight. The Engineer eventually finds himself in the service of Blutarch Mann, yet is not unwilling to threaten or berate his boss when he gets out of line, all the while continuing his work and making genius inventions to better kill his enemies while he sits on the sidelines, When Gray Mann takes over Mann Co., the Engineer disappears flawlessly and proceeds to work alongside the Administrator, keeping an eye on proceedings from the shadows and repairing her life extension machine. When the Administrator passes away temporarily, The Engineer quickly revives her and asks her about her goals, appalled and horrified when she reduces her lifespan to one year, yet having saved her life all the same.
    • "The Medic", real name Dr. Ludwig, is a brilliant Mad Scientist from Stuttgart with incomparable expertise and audacity. First introduced improvising a medical procedure after his patient's heart explodes and saving his team at the last second, the Medic is an utter genius who manages to succeed despite the insanity of his medical procedures, performing experiments and creating inventions that give the team major advantages. The Medic later ends up sidelined after the team is disbanded and joins their opposition, the Classic mercenaries, experimenting on them as well. The Medic eventually revives the Sniper and turns on the Classic Heavy for his mistreatment. After his death and the revelation that the Medic sold his soul to the devil, Medic proceeds to scam the devil by revealing he sewed his teammates' souls onto his own, returning to life and bluffing the Classic Heavy, playing a vital role in his defeat and proving to genuinely care for his teammates despite his immoral ways.
    • "The Sniper", real name Mr. Mick Mundy, is an expert assassin who lives by a simple code of efficiency and politeness. A levelheaded professional capable of absurd feats of marksmanship, the Sniper rarely loses his relaxed demeanor, even when in the heat of combat. Taking pride in his line of work yet never overindulging in it, the Sniper serves the team. Upon the team's disbanding, the Sniper retires to his old home, later ambushing and interrogating Miss Pauling and the Demoman about his biological parentage after discovering he was adopted. Upon learning he is in reality from the sunken city of New Zealand, the Sniper attempts to bond with his biological parents and ends up temporarily killed. After being validated by his adoptive parents in the afterlife, the Sniper returns to life and wastes no time in returning to his previous work, declaring himself to remain dangerous and even killing the cybernetically enhanced Classic Sniper, saving the Spy.
    • "The Spy" is a suave, professional French assassin who turns out to be the father of the Scout. Never short on snarky remarks or knives to shove into peoples backs, the Spy's introductory video shows him ruthlessly mowing down everybody on the opposing team, using his skills and acting abilities to take down the opposition one by one while hiding in plain sight as the Scout, ending the short victorious while fondly reminiscing over some photos of himself with the Scout's mother. Throughout the many wacky misadventures the mercs go through, Spy consistently proves himself to be a tremendously useful asset to the team, at one point defusing a situation involving the malicious Australian version of Santa Claus via instructing a child to let himself get captured and stab Santa in the neck. By the time of the final battle against the Classic team, Spy works well with his team to take them down, while taking some time out of the fight to comfort his son when he thinks he's dying.
    • Miss Pauling is the loyal assistant of the Administrator and a deadly killer behind a bookish exterior. Taking care of the mercenaries, covering up the evidence of Mann Co.'s crimes, and protecting assets, Pauling proves a brilliant manipulator as well, ensuring things go her way and taking extreme challenge in stride. When Mann Co. is taken over, Pauling reunites the team and works alongside them. Pauling saves the mercenaries from being executed at the hand of a lead-poisoned town, and saves herself and the Demoman by talking down the Sniper, always hunting the last Australium cache all the while. Eventually becoming an honorary member of the team and fighting alongside them, Miss Pauling repeatedly proves that she is loyal without fail to the Administrator, no matter the Administrator's end goals or what lengths Pauling must go to in securing them.
    • Helen, the Administrator, is the enigmatic head of TF Industries and the bombastic coordinator of the century-long turf war between the Mann brothers. Deliberately prolonging the war by giving both brothers—and herself—life-extending machines powered by Australium, the Administrator uses trickery and espionage to keep the mercs in line, assassinates anybody remotely problematic through her right-hand Miss Pauling, and manipulates the US senate into handing over their Australium reserve by promising to shoot a monkey into space. When suddenly blindsided by the appearance of Gray Mann, the Administrator swiped Mann Co.'s Australium supply under everyone's noses, and seized every last piece of it in the world over the course of several months through murder and deceit. When her supply runs out and she's forced to confront her own mortality, Helen downs the last vial of Australium she's got, ending the unfinished story at her peak and ready to bring her mysterious goals to fruition with what little time she has left.
  • Tenchu:
    • Lady Kagami is the leader of Lord Toda's shinobi. Disgusted with how the world treats ninja, Kagami goes behind her master's back to build up an army and empire of her own. Manipulating the war between Toda and Gohda, Kagami takes advantage of Toda's defeat to murder him and declare the birth of the Burning Dawn. Convincing the amnesiac ninja Tatsumaru he is her loyal subordinate, Kagami slowly begins to fall in love with him for real. Finally masterminding an attack on Gohda's fleet, Kagami attempts to seize control of Japan itself.
    • "Fatal Shadows" Kichigorou, Rin's partner, is an Azuma Clan spy task against the Kuroya. Pose as a veteran assassin for the Beniya, Kichigirou's used Rin to fulfill his mission making her into an assassin capable of doing so, guiding while staying hidden to gather intel, confronting Rin to see if she leaked any intel, prepared to execute if she has. Seeing her innocence, Kichigorou cut ties to protect her passively watching her final fight against Jyuzou, secretly helping her to finish the Kuroya to finish his duty.
  • Thief: Garrett, a former Keeper, is a master thief ostensibly out for himself who is continuously roped into world-shattering events against his will and defeats the enemies against him via sheer cleverness and audacity. Encountering the wicked Trickster Constantine, who seeks to consume the city, Garrett flawlessly orchestrates Constantine's destruction and escapes the vengeance of the Pagan faction. In the second game, Garrett learns of a plot by the evil Karas to annihilate all organic life and tricks Karas into destroying only himself. In the final game of the trilogy, Deadly Shadows, Garrett manages to destroy the power of a demonic beast from legend, the Hag and leaves her to the vengeance of the Keepers. While out for himself and occasionally ruthless, Garrett is always ready to show his enemies exactly why he is the best thief alive.
  • Threads of Fate: Ruecian, aka the Doll Master, from the Rue scenario, is a doll created by Valen who achieved duty to resurrect him with cunning and charisma. Acting as Maya's adviser, Doll Master set her up to overthrow her whenever he wants, secretly adding his followers among her forces. Learning of another doll, Rue awakened, he tried to get him to join him but after failing and taking an innocent life by accident, Doll Master learns from his error and decides to use more subtle tactics to prevent it from repeating. Learning of the existence of Prima Doll who could resurrect Valen, Doll Master manipulates him, Rue, and Maya to complete the ritual while trying coerce Rue to join him as brothers. With mere moments before Valen's resurrection, Doll Master once more tried to get Rue to join, expressing his wish for them to be siblings. Even after losing to him, Doll Master remains respectful of Rue, deciding to give his life to him, sacrificing himself to save him from his own master as a final act of his own free will.
  • Touhou Project franchise:
    • Yukari Yakumo, the enigmatic youkai of Boundaries and the single most well-informed person in all of Gensokyo, is the closest thing hero Reimu has to an employer, but also deftly manipulates the setting's various powers, both established and emergent, to ensure its continued stability. Having once led a failed invasion on the Moon to implicitly teach the youkai a lesson about expansionism, Yukari opts to instill fear of the unknown on the Lunarian exiles when they decide to live as humans, faithful to the philosophy on the human-youkai relationship; she does so by setting up a convoluted Kansas City Shuffle that ultimately leaves Eirin wondering how Yukari got her hands on a Lunarian wine bottle. Much later, she coerces Reimu into letting Kosuzu Motoori into her circle of confidantes to keep The Masquerade up and prevent the bookworm from eventually becoming a youkai—by first possessing her with a demonic scroll, of course. Cunning and manipulative when she does bother to stay awake, Yukari cultivates the image of being fickle, whimsical and lying, all while omitting her more charitable moments, in order to make everyone fear her.
    • Okina Matara is the mastermind behind the sixteenth game's unusual flow of seasons, using her ability to pour energy into anything through their backs as a show of power to remind everyone that she exists, as well as to replace her unwitting servants. In Visionary Fairies in Shrine, she turns a large number of fairies into stone cherries so she can draw out Clownpiece and force the latter to come back to Hell's bigshots and tell of Okina's existence, effectively discouraging their plans of invading Gensokyo. In Violet Detector, she splits Sumireko's consciousness and body, giving the body to a dream soul and convincing it that it's the real Sumireko; Okina only reveals the trick when the fake meets the real deal, promptly stripping the fake of its borrowed powers to make the duel fair and ultimately humble Sumireko. In Sunken Fossil World, she goads everyone into suppressing Yuuma ahead of schedule, knowing that they will still fail given Yuuma's powers; when Flandre succeeds, Okina concludes a deal with Yuuma to gain joint ownership of the Hell of Blood Pools. In stark contrast to Yukari's capricious but benevolent side, Okina's machinations weight more toward serving her own ego, with any benefits consolidating her hold on her dominion, Gensokyo.
    • Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom: Junko is the true mastermind behind the Lunarians' sudden relocation from the Moon, kickstarting the game's plot. A Divine Spirit with the ability to purify anything, Junko is out for revenge after her son's death, enlisting the help of a Hell goddess to end the Lunarian hegemony and strike her target when the latter is left undefended. Junko's cunning shines when she empowers Hecatia's lowly mooks into beings of pure lifeforce to make them completely immune against the Lunarians' weapons, forcing them to abandon their Capital. Junko then has Hecatia trap the retreating Lunarians in the Dream World, forcing them to consider terraforming Gensokyo, which would entail the complete eradication of life on Earth. Her plan only falls apart when the Lunarians take no direct action against her for half a year, which eventually dissipates her anger and interest. At the end of the Extra Stage, she releases the Lunarians from the Dream World at the heroines' behest so that Gensokyo stays safe from annihilation. Even then, she muses that there'll be plenty of future opportunities to get at her mark, such is the eternal cycle of revenge.
  • Trails Series:
    • Giliath Osborne is the Blood and Iron Chancellor of Erebonia and the final antagonist of the Erebonia arc. After the death of his wife and the fatal attack on his son Rean Schwarzer, he makes a deal with Ishmelga to save his son's life in exchange for his own service to bring about the Great Twilight, and played the role of ostensibly loyal servant while planning against him to destroy Ishmelga and his curse. To bring about the Twilight, he starts by taking advantage of "unfortunate accidents" in order to force nations into merging with Erebonia or risking destruction, and succeeds almost every time using just his words. Surviving being shot, he starts biding his time and allows the Noble Faction to undermine itself and gaining more power for himself before he reveals he survived the attack. Manipulating Ouroboros, he then takes over their Phantasmal Blaze Plan for himself, and forces them to work for him instead if they want to see their plans to fruition. In the end, when the Great Twilight has been fulfilled, he rushes the final Rivalry in order to prevent it from happening at the height of the war and allowing Rean to defeat him and go on to destroy Ishmelga once and for all.
    • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel: Rufus Alberea, known as the Jade Rook, is the right-hand man of Giliath Osborne among the Ironbloods. Infiltrating the Noble Alliance during the Erebonian Civil War, Rufus would undermine the Noble Alliance from within by assisting Class VII in arresting Duke Alberea, and later betraying Duke to Osborne. Appointed governor of Crossbell, Rufus would employ underhanded tactics to obtain a Divine Knight to be used against Osbone such as using Rean and New Class VII to clear out Cryptids, and later killing Arianrhod at a moment of weakness after her Rivalry with Rean. At the same time, Rufus maintains Crossbell's loyalities to the empire by isolating the Special Support Section from Crossbell. Breaking out of prison upon his Simulacrum self's coup in Crossbell, Rufus would take the identity of "C" and feign the kidnapping of Olivert to lure Rean into defeating coup sympathizers in Heimdallr. Rejecting power after defeating his Simulacrum self, Rufus would attempt to sacrifice himself by channeling the world's hate onto him as a means of stopping Reverse Babel from destroying Zemuria.
  • The Trapped Trilogy: Daniel "Dan" McNeely is a charmingly smug, high-ranking member of the Armor Gamsees who seeks to become one of the world’s new gods. In Trapped, after Dan kills Benjamin Gruenbaum and raids his mansion alongside his beloved Dialla Reineheart, Dan and Dialla inject themselves with Gruenbaum's immorgamsics to gain immortality, which gives them amnesia in the processes. Through a series of puzzles, Dan is able to escape the mansion and remember his previous life, which he fully embraces. In Pursuit, Dan plants Mickey Lee into Dialla's life as her supposed friend in order to lure her to his sewer hideout, killing Mickey once his purpose has been fulfilled. In Escape, Dan manipulates Dialla into discovering her true identity as the leader of the Armor Gamsees, all as a way for her to rejoin him by his side. Dan remains calm and collected even when he's trapped inside a safe underneath the ocean, confidently planning his escape.
  • True Crime: Streets of LA: Ancient Wu is a centuries-old sorcerer who has ruled the underworld of Los Angeles for years, and seeks to reestablish that control following the chaotic warring brought about by the Russians. Annoyed by his hand in helping the Russians to power now that they have betrayed him, Wu manipulates young, hotheaded cop Nick Kang into taking down the Russians for him, first testing Kang by pitting him against a magical harem and Wu's own gigantic dragon form. Once Kang has proven his worth, Wu offers guidance, assistance and clever tricks to Kang to help him murder Russian gang boss Rocky and his benefactors, leaving Los Angeles solely in Wu's control once more.
  • Uncharted series:
    • Nadine Ross is a badass, snarky Private Military Contractor who hires her company Shoreline out to Rafe Adler in the hunt for Henry Avery's treasure. Capable of beating Nathan and Sam Drake in hand-to-hand combat while engaging in banter and functioning as a competent No-Nonsense Nemesis to Rafe's egocentric instability, regularly keeping him in check as she assumes the lead. When Rafe's treatment of her grows abusive and he costs her a fortune in treasure for his own ego, Nadine stabs him in the back at the first opportune moment, simply cutting her losses and escaping with her life while leaving him to die. Returning later as a treasure hunter in her own right], Nadine teams up with Chloe Frazer to hunt the Tusk of Ganesh and thwart Asav's warmongering, saving the day and establishing herself as a morally flexible heroine and villainess alike, depending on what pays best and what standards her foes cross.
    • Drake's Fortune: Atoq Navarro is the true mastermind behind the hunt for El Dorado. Allying himself with Gabriel Roman and feigning his status as a put-upon lackey, Navarro guides the Roman and Nathan Drake's individual hunts on the hidden island towards his own goals, unknown to all. Upon finding the casket of El Dorado, Navarro betrays and tricks Roman into getting himself killed before revealing how he has played everyone to his tune, all in the hopes of selling off the virus-laden El Dorado casket as a weapon of war to the highest bidder.
    • Drake's Deception: Talbot is Katherine Marlowe's right-hand man, doing the majority of the heavy lifting and thinking for his boss in outpacing Nathan Drake. Deducing a traitor in Marlowe's organization with ease after an operation goes wrong, Talbot later drugs and hypnotizes the traitor, Charlie Cutter, into helping thwart Drake at several turns. With mysterious abilities to survive gun shot wounds and disappear down dead end alleys with ease, Talbot routinely outwits Drake and his friends to swipe artifacts from them as they are collected, even hypnotizing Drake into giving Marlowe the final piece of the puzzle to find the lost city of Iram. Genuinely loyal to Marlowe to the end, Talbot loses his calm, cool demeanor for the first time in the game when she dies, and nearly murders Drake and Sully for their hand in her death.
    • A Thief's End's "Chapter 5": The fictionalized version of Hector Alcázar presented by Sam Drake is an affable, devious crime lord who serves as one of the game's most memorable characters despite his status as a fabrication. Having concocted a foolproof breakout scheme from the prison he's locked inside, using everything from hired guns to explosives planted strategically, Alcázar drags Sam along with him for their escape, saving his life many times over. Escaping the prison with ease as intended, Alcázar then reveals he saved Sam as well so Sam could finally track down Henry Avery's treasure, Alcázar threatening him into seeing the mission through and promising to be there when Sam finds it so as to take his share, before handing the thirsty Sam a drink of water and pointing him to the closest town politely.
  • Undertale: Mettaton, the outrageously fabulous and delightfully egotistical celebrity robot, is initially roped into a scheme to help his friend Dr. Alphys befriend the Human Child. He plays the role of a murderous mechanical menace while Alphys "stops him" at every turn, but after he finds himself doing all of the heavy lifting, Mettaton gets sick of playing pretend. Deciding to steal the Child's SOUL so that he may reach the surface and stop King Asgore Dreemurr from exterminating humanity, Mettaton reactivates several deadly traps, hires multiple monsters to kill the Child, and caps it off by locking them into a dynamic battle on live television for the whole Underground to see. No matter what route you choose, Mettaton will always end the game on his terms, ranging from accepting defeat with pride, to sassing the player even as they're dead set on killing everyone.
  • Unheard: Four-Eyes is the stage manager of the theatre, and the mastermind behind the events of Case 4. Suspicious of the lead actress Sasha for causing the death of his crush Emily, Four-Eyes sends texts to the cast under the guise of Emily's vengeful spirit to stir up paranoia within Sasha. Manipulating Sasha's manager Harvey, and one of her fellow actors Slim into blackmailing her, Four-Eyes has his suspicions confirmed by tricking Harvey into letting him listen in on his conversation with Sasha during the blackmail. Seeking revenge, Four-Eyes orchestrates a conversation between Sasha and one of her accomplices while calling the director and Emily's lover, Larry, through a phone he planted near Sasha. Through this, Four-Eyes successfully manipulates Larry into killing Sasha, all while ensuring he remains under the radar.
  • Unreal: Malcolm is a nine-time champion of the Liandri Grand Tournament and an efficient yet self-interested soldier who earned his reputation dethroning longtime champion Xan Kriegor and found Thunder Crash with his longtime rivals. Seeing his exploits as just business, Malcolm convinced a formerly hesitant Anubis of the Nakhti to join his group in what's implied to be a political gambit for his sponsors. Hired by the Izanagi Corporation for his credentials, Malcolm mentors the Ronin while strategically assisting in the war efforts throughout Taryd. Once the Ronin became too much of a loose canon for him and his employers to keep around, Malcolm waits until all opposition has been dealt with before revealing the deception he laid out since the beginning, showing that the legendary soldier could also manipulate his way to victory and a paycheck.
  • Untitled Goose Game: The goose itself is a mischievous prankster out to screw with the neighboring villagers as much as it can. Using cleverness and stealth, the goose progresses through the village, outwitting the denizens and accomplishing whatever antics it desires. At the game's climax, the goose steals the village's prized golden bell, causing the entire area to go into lockdown in a last-ditch effort to stop it. Even so, the goose evades its opposition, takes the bell home, and dumps it in a pile of identical bells, showing that it's done this time and time again.
  • Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria: Brahms the Lord of the Undead, is a fearless vampire lord protecting all of humanity and Midgard from the whims of the gods and Odin behind the shadows of the undead. A former Einjerhar who abandoned the gods after learning their true nature, Brahms rules the legions of the undead to keep Odin at bay, while he plots Midgard's protection. Disguising himself in the soul of Dylan, Brahm followed Alicia and Rufus in their quest for the Dragon Orb to use it himself, failing but managing to salvage his plan by taking Silmeria as a substitute in the original timeline and later hinting to Lenneth Odin's deception to free her from his control. When Lezard went back in time and causing a divergence, Brahms after being freed by Alicia leads her and their allies in defeating him, saving the souls of the Valkyries before masterminding a plan to summon the true Valkyrie to vanquish Lezard, saving Midgard once more and allowing himself to die with his duty complete.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines:
    • "Smiling" Jack, the Brujah former pirate and proud Anarch is manipulating the Player Character more than almost any other Kindred in the entire game. Having arranged for the transport of the mysterious Ankaran Sarcophagus, Jack cheerfully shows the main character the ropes of vampirism before clandestinely boarding the ship transporting the sarcophagus, simulating a vampire attack while secretly stealing the mummified king within and replacing it with C4. Jack proceeds to lend his aid from the shadows, manipulating the main character into fighting and dispatching all of the threats to the Anarch faction in the city, especially the smug, vile Ventrue Prince Sebastian Lacroix. Just for kicks, Jack even makes sure to leave a note for when Lacroix opens the sarcophagus reading "Boom! - love Jack" as a final touch of black humor.
    • Maximillian Strauss is the Tremere Primogen and the true power behind the Camarilla in Los Angeles. While buffoonish Prince Sebastian selfishly works for his own well being, Strauss ensures the Camarilla's power base by making diplomatic ties towards the Anarchs and keeps the Kuei-Jin from gaining too much authority. The only Elder to treat the new fledgling with respect, Strauss has them stop a deadly vampiric disease from spreading throughout the city and to secretly kill his own renegade gargoyle in Anarch territory to save face. Handsomely rewarding his top agent, Strauss can later secure their safety during the Prince's blood hunt and use them to eliminate Ming Xiao, the Kuei-Jin leader, and Sebastian himself to become the new Prince of Los Angeles and name the fledgling his new right hand. In a final show of wisdom, he resists opening the Ankaran Sarcophagus and hides it away to never be disturbed again.
    • Gary Golden was a Hollywood movie star when Embraced into the Nosferatu. The Primogen of the Los Angeles branch of the clan, Gary is an information broker who deals his information to anyone who wants it in flagrant violation of Prince LaCroix's will. Allowing the Sabbat to think the Nosferatu have been defeated, Gary simply allows others to destroy their ghouls while being in no danger along with most of his clan in the warren. Gary then proceeds to manipulate the protagonist for favors of his own, rewarding them with information and reminding them he's always available should there be something to trade.
    • Bertram Tung is a Nosferatu Knowledge Broker and the Camarilla's primary agent in Santa Monica. Needed to help the fledgling infiltrate a Sabbat warehouse, Tung forces them to do favors for his rival Anarch Therese Voerman so that she'll call off their feud before he offers his help. Proving the first skilled manipulator the fledgling comes across, he coaches his skilled ghoul to appear as an incompetent fool to trick them into doing his dirty work of tracking down and killing a Kuei-Jin vampire that infiltrated his territory. Even if his deception is uncovered, Bertram shows his respect and further proves his use by sharing his extended knowledge of vampire society under a veil of humorous snark.
    • The Mandarin is an intelligent, savvy hired gun for the Kuei-jin, using his Fu Syndicate in a mission to discover all weaknesses of Kindred. The Mandarin captures Kindred and subjects them to various experiments and testing chambers to gauge what weapons, technology and religious symbols most affect them, intending to sell the information to the Kuei-jin as part of their business deal. Using the captured Barabas to lure the Fledgling to him, the Mandarin forces the Fledgling to reveal themselves and kill off a failed underling, traps the Fledgling in his experiments, then honorably faces the Fledgling down in one-on-one combat when his plans are foiled.
    • Mr. Ox is a cryptic, supernatural shopkeeper who deals in all manner of cursed, evil and morbid items. Priding himself on always giving his customers "exactly what they deserve," Ox sends the Fledgling on a series of dark quests to obtain such things as the eyeballs of one of Ox's dead associates who failed to pay Ox for his services. In one notable case of his operations, Ox dispatches the Fledgling to plant a bad luck talisman inside a victim's locker as a job for a client, fully planning on the Fledgling being caught in the act and forced to kill the target as the ultimate "bad luck". Should the Fledgling dare to betray and try to attack Ox, Ox simply chuckles and vanishes into thin air, never to be faced again as his business continues prospering.
  • The Walking Dead: Season One: Molly is an ex-Crawford survivor who had an affair with a doctor to get insulin for her diabetic sister. Following her sister's death, Molly survives often uses the town's bells to distract walkers from her scavenging. When she first meets Lee's group, she leaves them to die before Clementine changed her mind. In Crawford, Molly gets Lee to shoot through a skylight to escape with a battery. A caring person beneath her cynicism, Molly stands out as one of the most capable survivors in the series.
  • Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo: Feathers McGraw, having escaped capture, plans to turn West Wallaby Zoo into his own diamond factory. Infiltrating the zoo, he captures the cubs of the zoo animals in cages, using them as leverage for the parents to work for him in exchange for their safety. When Wallace and Gromit infiltrate the zoo to save their polar bear friend, Feathers stays one step ahead of them throughout the game, activating traps and sabotaging machinery to hinder the duo. Fighting Gromit in a mech when cornered, he attempts to escape when beaten, nearly getting away and only being stopped by an ambush.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine: Warboss Grimskull is the initial Big Bad of the game and the master of the ork WAAAGH! besieging the Forge World. A genius by the standards of his race, Grimskull utilizes a series of ruthless tactics, disabling strategic points, seizing weaponry and disabling aircrafts to cut off the ground forces so his orks can overrun the Imperial Guard. Grimskull shows himself to be utterly tenacious, pursuing Captain Titus persistently and tirelessly to regain the planet's power source. When he recoups from any setback, Grimskull is later set upon by daemons, only to emerge without a scratch and give the true villain, the Chaos Sorcerer Lord a wide grin before declaring the one quote that sums Grimskull up perfectly: "I ain't so easy to kill!"
  • Warriors Orochi 4:
    • Zeus is the king of Olympus and a charismatic, bold god who creates a new dimension to manipulate the warriors of the world into battle. Presiding over the chaos, Zeus turns out to have a very specific purpose: to lure the evil Omnicidal Maniac god Odin to his new dimension to destroy him. While initially killed by his son's betrayal, Zeus later returns and is able to see Ares' defeat through, revealing he also intended to manipulate his own followers and children to make them realize the importance of mortals.
    • Loki takes the form of Perseus, manipulating the heroes to steal the magical bracelets for Odin's sake. Helping to bring the heroes close to defeat by his ruthless cleverness, Loki seemingly advances Odin's goals all the while while few ever managing to suspect him. By the end however, Loki reveals his newfound care for humanity and that he manipulated Odin as well, seeking revenge for those he loved slain by Odin during Ragnarok.
  • Watch_Dogs series:
    • Aiden Pearce, "The Fox", is a brilliant hacker seeking vengeance on those responsible for the death of his niece, Lena. With Jordi's help, Aiden is able to track down the hitman who killed Lena, where Aiden learns about the crime syndicate he works for, the Chicago South Club, and infiltrates the organization and dismantles its human trafficking operation before killing its leader, Dermot "Lucky" Quinn by hacking into his pacemaker. When his former partner, Damien Brenks, kidnaps Aiden's sister and nephew, Aiden rescues them from Brenks and stops Brenks from causing chaos in Chicago before killing him. Embracing his role as "The Vigilante", Aiden becomes The Dreaded throughout the criminal underworld to the point where even Quinn's associates in San Fransisco know of him when he goes after them and his reputation even extends to London when he's assigned to steal the BrocaBridge there fifteen years later. Working with Thomas Rempart to retrieve the BrocaBridge from Wrench, Aiden turns on Rempart once he rescues his nephew Jackson and later helps Wrench bring Rempart to justice.
    • Raymond Kenney is a genius software engineer hired by Blume Corporation to create Central Operating System (CTOS). When Raymond learns of the corporation's plan to use CTOS to spy on people and control their lives, he hacks CTOS to show everyone the dangers of relying it, causing the Northeast blackout of 2003 and the deaths of eleven people. Going into hiding in Chicago and taking the alias Theodore "T-Bone" Grady, Raymond allies with Aiden Pearce, helping him rescue his sister from Damien Brenks, dismantle Lucky Quinn's human trafficking ring, and shut down CTOS when Brenks hijacks it. Upon learning that JB Markowicz, aka Default, has sent fixers to kill Raymond in the "Bad Blood" DLC, Raymond tracks him down and turns Default's own trap against him, killing Default. Resuming his crusade against Blume in the sequel, Raymond goes to San Fransisco and recruits Marcus Halloway and his friends to his cause while tasking them with dangerous missions to gain more followers, turning them into a genuine threat to Blume and allowing them to expose the corruption of their Chief Technology Officer, Dusan Nemec, leading to Nemec's arrest.
    • Jordi Chin is a witty yet professional fixer that helps Aiden Pearce to track down Maurice Vega at a baseball stadium before he stages the scenario like a gang-shooting before calling the police, distracting everyone while he and Aiden escape taking Maurice with them. Learning that someone survived their attack and can identify them, Jordi has Aiden infiltrate the prison to silence the witness being held there and would later betray Aiden after receiving a contract to kill him. Surviving his scuffle with Aiden, Jordi appears in the sequel’s DLC, "Human Conditions", teaming up with DedSec hacker Marcus Holloway to kill Anton Bagdonov of the Russian Mob, Bratva, pinning his murder on Marcus, and in Legion's "Bloodlines " assigns Aiden to steal the BrocaBridge in London and getting into contact with Wrench, before assigning him fixer jobs to complete.
    • Legion: Sabine Brandt is DedSec's Mission Control who is actually Zero Day, a cyber terrorist who plots the destruction of England. Previously a well-mannered DedSec operative, after realizing that peace in England can never be achieved, Sabine decides to give her beloved country a hard reset and rebuild it from the ground up to make it a better place. Working with Nigel Cass in order to ensure him power over London's police force, Sabine tricks her boyfriend Dalton Wolfe into activating a series of bombs across London, killing him and her DedSec allies to pin the destruction on them. After getting double-crossed by Cass once he's in power, Sabine begins recruiting the citizens of London to form a new DedSec to stop Cass, manipulating everybody into taking down those who stand in her way. Once Cass is taken out, Sabine reveals herself to her allies and hijacks Bagley to detonate every device connected to ctOS, causing widespread mayhem in an attempt to create the peaceful utopia she so desires.
  • A Way Out: Vincent Moretti, a supposed banker, is in fact an undercover cop who wants to get revenge on the criminal Harvey for killing his brother and partner Gary. Faking a backstory to get inside prison in order to get in contact with Harvey's former underling Leo Caruso, Vincent gets Leo to help him break out of jail and assist him in getting even with Harvey. Putting Leo's and his own family's lives at risk to kill Harvey, while also breaking protocol numerous times, Vincent is able to murder Harvey with Leo's help, before revealing his true intentions afterward and putting his partner under arrest.
  • Wild ARMs series:
    • Wild ARMs 2: Commander Irving Valeria, leader of ARMS, is a descendant of the Sword Magess' bloodline. However, he was unable to wield the legendary Argetlahm to stop the encroaching Kuiper Belt from consuming the world, and instead decided to rely on his intellect to save all of Filgaia. He funds the terrorist organization Odessa and has them try to Take Over the World, while also creating ARMS to oppose them and inspire unity among world leaders, ensuring that the nations of the world would have their power united regardless of who wins. After Odessa's defeat, Irving used his newfound authority to try executing a plan to stop the emerging Kuiper Belt. When the plan fails, Irving moves to his final contingency: he and his sister sacrificing themselves to give the Kuiper Belt a physical form that can be killed by ARMS. He explains the truth to Ashley in his final moments, only regretting that he won't be able to see the world's future. An extremely impressive schemer, Irving is willing to do anything to fulfill his bloodline's destiny and save the world.
    • Wild ARMs 3: Asgard is a War Golem created by the Prophets to be a weapon and bodyguard, who fulfills his duty through sheer will and a warrior's spirit. Unyielding, Asgard stood as a major obstacle for the Drifters throughout their journey, always nearly beating them and only stopped because of outside interference. When Beatrice ends up causing his master's demise, Asgard came up with a plan to avenge them while also arranging himself to be killed, assisting the Drifters in destroying in Beatrice's tower and then dueling them to the death knowing they will prevail, imparting words of wisdom to opposition particularly Jet after their final battle, before joining his masters in the Netherworld where he can continue his duty forevermore while living his adversaries to defeat Beatrice in his stead.
    • Wild ARMs 5:
      • Nightburn Ackland is the dashing leader of the Golem Hunters Guild and human icon who's secretly in league with the Veruni. After losing his Veruni lover to a disease and learning that her race is doom to extinction unless drastic measures, Nightburn aligned with the Veruni as a false hero to his race, using his fame and charisma to lure other humans as part of the Veruni's many system to keep both sides in check. Running the entertainment and mine industry where he tricked many humans into slavery, Nightburn hid his facade brilliantly for years while secretly getting closer in solving the Veruni dilemma until encountered Dean. After being defeated by him and impress by his resolve, Nightburn switch sides, setting up Dean to succeed in what he failed, unite the two race, before seemingly sacrifing himself for him before re-emerging to face the Veruni radicals as a genuine hero.
      • Duogrammaton "Duo" is a Veruni entertainment mogul who's floozy facade hides a cunning reporter fighting for the truth. In charge of Liela Belle and managing Nightburn's image, when he realize that Avril was the Ice Queen, he used his status to lure her group into a fake audition where he secretly studied her in the guise of just mere amusement. Hating how his race disregard humans and censor the truth, Duo pretended to comply with his race's demand only to expose their whole system behind their back, secretly recording and revealing Nightburn and the Veruni's fraudalence to start a revolution for humans to fight back, before guiding the group to Johnny Appleseed so they can show the truth of the conflict plaguing both races.
  • The Witch and the Hundred Knight:
    • The Fog Witch, Nezaria Netherland is the leader of the Great Witches of Walpurgis, revered for her exploits and boundless experience. As one of the oldest witches, Nezaria witnessed Niike nearly destroy her world, fighting and sealing him. Aware Niike will return, Nezaria plans on using Metallia and the Hundred Knight since they share power, orchestrating their journey to empower them and guiding them to the foreseen path of Niike's demise, regardless of sacrifices, from the witches and Visco to motivate Metallia. With everything set, Nezaria challenges the two to test them before showing them Niike and entrusting them to do what she failed, returning to the sides to see the newly reform world the two made after Niike's final demise.
    • The Swamp Fairy, Mani—previously known as the witch, Aguni—was used as a hostage so that the witches could kill her lover, the Eldritch Abomination Niike, millennia before the present time, before taking her own life and being reborn. Manipulating Metallia and a sentient piece of Niike, the Hundred Knight, Mani sees to it the duo destroy the pillars sealing Niike's power to resurrect her beloved and together destroy the world they despise. Killing Grand Witch Uruka to stop interference with her plans, Mani comes moments from completing her goal and even with Niike slain, chooses to fight until the bitter end.
  • Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty: Lu Bu, in stark contrast to his usual portrayal, is a well-intentioned and intelligent warrior who is a descendant of the secret Taoist clan. Seeing the dangers of elixir and the wicked plans of the Taoist in Black, Lu Bu infiltrated Dong Zhuo's forces and becomes a terror on the battlefield. Secretly plotting to betray Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu breaks his cover to kill him once his own sister is threatened. Waging his own war to secretly undermine the Taoist in Black, Lu Bu eventually passes in the arms of the hero, imploring them to finish his mission and save all China.
  • The World Ends with You is full of cunning sarcastic schemers amongst the cast but some stand out:
    • Megumi Kitaniji is the true Big Bad of the game, second in power only to Joshua. Ruling the underground of Shibuya in Joshua's absence as its Conductor, Kitaniji assigns Game Masters to each week to act as his Proxy while vying for control against Joshua and seeking to give order to Shibuya through the O-Pins. Kitaniji takes non-refundable entry fees—including Neku Sakubara's memories—and forces Neku to play another Game while holding Shiki as his new fee. As Neku begins the game, he takes Shiki as his entry fee knowing very well how much she meant to the boy. Kitaniji also has Beat hunt his own friends down in an attempt to erase them. In the third week, Kitaniji brainwashes the entire town with the O-Pins and merges with Joshua to become the final threat. Even in spite of his viciousness, Kitaniji has Beat, hunt down Neku and Joshua in an attempt to erase them. Despite this he has nothing but praise for his minions and even Neku, and gracefully concedes defeat to Joshua once he's proven himself better.
    • Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu starts the game as a helpful if obnoxious partner in Week 2. In reality, he is Shibuya's UG Composer making him the Greater-Scope Villain of the Reaper's Game. Besides handing out orders from behind the scenes he fools Neku, the game's protagonist, into believing he risked his life for Neku and defeated Neku's killer. In reality, he killed Neku to use as a Proxy to win the True Game with Megumi Kitaniji: the Conductor. While he may have originally planned to erase Shibuya, Neku's reliance on the people around him restored his faith in humanity, convincing all the players—even the ones who didn't make it—a second chance at life. Neku monologues in the end that while he couldn't stand Joshua, he's grateful for meeting him and he trusts him, even being unable to shoot him when Joshua offers to make him the Composer through his own death. Even in the failure of his own goals of destroying Shibuya, Joshua still managed to win in the end.
    • Sho Minamimoto is the rogue Week 2 Game Master of the Reaper's Game. He starts by attempting an assassination on Joshua in the RG, which fails, but he comes out unscathed. As game master, he makes increasingly cryptic clues for his missions, which only Joshua is able to figure out. Then he makes a Tin Pin Slammer mission that nearly gets Neku and Joshua erased, had it not been for two other players, which Minamimoto has erased by Taboo Noise after a Level i Flare while he is forced to revive himself with a Taboo Sigil, and reveals his ultimate goal: to dethrone Joshua as the Composer, and were they on a level playing field in their second bout, he might have succeeded. Even then, his intelligence was enough that Coco, Joshua's other adversary revived him to compete in a final Reaper's Game.
    • Sanae Hanekoma is the narrative's biggest and most successful schemer. Upon learning about a month-long game to determine whether the Composer should erase Shibuya, he taught Sho Minamimoto how to use Taboo Noise, which would sacrifice innocents. Hanekoma also teaches Neku to "expand [his] horizons", giving him a Harmonizer Pin to ensure that he survives the Reaper's Game. The events that Hanekoma caused would change Neku enough to resist Kitanij's offer to join him in making a "new Shibuya". Neku defeats Kitaniji, making way for Shibuya to become untainted for the Composer to spare it, just as Hanekoma had planned.
  • World of Horror: "Together" is an amalgamation of minds and souls that seeks to kill all of humanity to bring all of its victims into it, where they can find peace. To this end, it uses an online bulletin to force its victims to take their own lives. When investigated, Together proves an altogether personable if alien adversary, almost always devising a way out when discovered. Should the investigator deny its requests, it will simply ban them from the bulletin and continue its spree with no conflict; should the investigator reason with it, however, Together will develop an understanding of humanity's impending doom, and will politely step aside to let the investigator deal with them, promising to return when technology has advanced and it can achieve its goals more efficiently.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles series:
    • Original game: Egil is a Machina, the leader of the Mechon army, creator of the Faced Mechon, and the mastermind behind their invasion of Bionis. Egil was once friends with Arglas from Bionis with whom he discussed the idea of leaving the world of Bionis and Mechonis in search of new worlds, and of peace and coexistence. However, when Arglas was possessed by Zanza and laid waste to Mechonis, Egil swore revenge and, when both titans were put to sleep, began attacking Bionis hoping to wipe out as much life as possible on the titan so that, when Zanza returned, he would be more vulnerable to kill. Once Shulk learns of his past and confronts him in Mechonis Core, Shulk offers a chance to let go of revenge and change the world together. But thanks to Zanza's timely resurrection, Egil instead gives his life so the heroes can escape, placing his hopes they can kill the evil god without resorting to the extremes he went to.
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: The enigmatic Jin is a Flesh Eater Blade who used to be revered as a hero known as the "Paragon of Torna". Jin succumbed to despair and misanthropy after his kingdom's people were slaughtered and he lost his Driver Lora, and proceeded to found the Organization of Torna with a cabal of fellow misanthropes. A taciturn No-Nonsense Nemesis, Jin curbstomps the heroes almost every time they meet and lectures protagonist Rex on his own personal failings. Jin's most impressive gambit comes when he nearly orchestrates a war between two separate nations as a diversion to his attempt to kill the Architect himself and destroy the world. Not without an immense level of honor, Jin is ultimately so impressed with Rex's personal growth that he gives his life to save Rex and defeat Amalthus in the endgame, recanting his misanthropic ideals and coming to peace with himself. Tragic but utterly driven, the heroes themselves pledge to remember Jin as a "splendid soul" in spite of his atrocious actions.
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 3:
      • Teach is the current commander of Colony Gamma, where Mio, Taion and Sena are currently appointed in. When first met by the recently transformed Ouroboros group, he sends them to a far away place from the Colony to seemingly kill them, but later clarifies that it was to test them and see if their good will hadn't gone away because of the recent power they got. Later in his Ascencion quest, we learn that he was previously known as the "All-Slayer Oleg", who was infamous for having battles won with many casualties of his own men, with one particular bad Pyrrhic Victory making it so that he wanted to change his ways, faking his own death and, with the help of Consul G, ensured that he would be known as Teach from later on. Although he's known for putting his troops in rigurous training that would make even the most resilient give out, he still wants what's best for them, and is willing to do anything to protect them, even avoiding violence if it's not needed.
      • Crys is an Off-Seer from Keves who later became part of the evil Moebius. Thousands of years ago, he grew tired of Homecomings being little more than unceremonious executions after a soldier's tenth Term, and with the help of Consul M, successfully convinced Consul V to retool Homecomings into ceremonies where a soldier is sent off, removing them from the cycle of death and rebirth. He continued his Off-Seeing through multiple reincarnations, and in his final reincarnation, became Noah's mentor as an Off-Seer. Reborn as Consul C, he's tasked with eliminating Ouroboros and joins forces with the Queen of Keves to guard the last piece of Origin metal. However, he uses this as a ploy to murder the Queen and give Ouroboros the Origin metal, but not before fighting them to the death to see if Noah and his friends are indeed Worthy Opponents against Moebius. In his last moments, Crys takes the time to point out how there's no telling what will happen once Moebius is defeated, and he's proud of Noah for coming so far. Noble, crafty, and desiring the best for everyone, Crys was a figure Noah was honored to have learned from.
  • Xenogears:
    • Grahf, the enigmatic Arch-Enemy of Fei, is a Wild Card with a hidden agenda. Actually one of Fei's past life Lacan, he was a former peace advocate but after his beloved Sophia, Elly's past life, sacrificed herself for his sake only to learn that the history of his world is actually being controlled by Miang and Deus in a cycle to resurrect Deus, Lacan decided it was better to destroy the world to free everyone especially Sophia, ascending as his own being from Fei becoming Grahf. Planning to help Miang and Deus before betraying and destroying them using the power of the Contract, Grahf first attempted to possess Fei, but ended up taking his father Khan instead. Regaining control from Khan years later, Grahf masterminded Fei's journey to power, arranging his village's destruction and empowering his enemies to possess him later when he is strong enough to defeat Miang and Deus. However, when Fei ended up defeating him in their final battle, Grahf realizes that Fei alone could defeat the two not him, and sacrifices himself to save him, using his moments to beg Fei to save Elly.
    • Krelian, leader of Solaris, is a brilliant man with goals beyond the mortal world. Once the devout follower and friend of Lacan and Sophia, when Sophia died to end a war, Lacan lost his faith in the god Sophia believed in, further spiraling into depression after learning the truth of his world being manipulated by Miang and Deus since the beginning. With ambitions to ascend to godhood with the rest of civilization in his pursuit for peace through Deus, Krelian worked with the Gazel Ministry, Cain and even Miang herself, appealing to them by using his expertise in nanotech to lead their cruel experiments and operation for a dystopia, while secretly set-up their demise, deceiving Ramses into killing Cain, and using a virus to delete the Gazel Ministry. With his plans in motion, Krelian succeedes in ascending with plans to take the rest of humanity with him, only to change his mind upon seeing Fei and Elly's determination, using his powers to instead help them defeat Miang and Deus for good, and returning them home before going with the Wave of Existence to the land of god believing he does not belong back home after everything he has done.
  • Xenosaga:
    • Doctor Sellers is the epitome of cold, amoral scientific genius. A disciple of the famed Professor Joachim Mizrahi, Sellers betrays his mentor to the U-TIC terrorist organization, then later sees to it that the now-deceased professor is framed for the destruction of Planet Miltia, turning him into the galaxy's boogeyman overnight. In his efforts to prove himself Mizrahi's scientific superior, Sellers offers his genius to multiple factions, from U-TIC to their foes in the government, constructing wonders such as the space station Merkabah and a working replica of the Zohar supercomputer. When finally confronted by the main characters, Sellers decides to simply leave, having no stakes in the conspiracy surrounding the Zohar whatsoever beyond demonstrating his own brilliance, which he has already accomplished.
    • Wilhelm is the ultimate puppetmaster behind every conflict in the world of Xenosaga. Ostensibly the CEO of the MegaCorp Vector Research and Development, Wilhelm is in reality an ancient being tasked with preserving the existence of the universe by any means necessary, regardless of the consequences to individual lives. Deciding that the best way to preserve the universe is to Restart the World repeatedly using the ancient Zarathustra Mechanism, Wilhelm manipulates both sides of the war between the Galactic Federation and U-TIC, using his money and his agents, the Testaments, to guide events to the point where the items and people he needs to activate Zarathustra will be brought directly to the device. His actions engineer conflicts that annihilate entire planets, but as far as Wilhelm is concerned it's all for the best to ensure the universe's safety, and even when the heroes successfully turn the tables on him, mortally wounding him and wrecking Zarathustra, Wilhelm simply reacts with bemusement at their choice of an uncertain future before vanishing with a smile.
  • Zettai Zetsumei Toshi series:
    • Disaster Report: Terry Stiver is the creator of Stiver Island, as well as its destroyer. Under the belief that his family was killed by the government, Terry sought the destruction of Stiver Island as an act of revenge, coming up with the plan to secretly pollute the city reservoirs and commencing several earthquakes and floods. Upon realizing that he was being manipulated by his supposed friend Albert Sims the entire time, Terry betrays his partner by shrugging off his bullets and taking Albert with him to a watery grave.
    • Raw Danger: Mayor Goldstein, real name Apolon, is a well-respected politician who masterminded the degradation of Geo City. Having originally been a citizen of Cascade Village, after witnessing the government solve a virus epidemic within his village by burning it all down and building Del Ray over the ashes, Goldstein sought payback. Becoming the mayor of Del Ray, Goldstein used his connections to secretly create the deadly Echidna virus, which he'll unleash on the people of Geo City during its grand opening, even having the city flooded as a distraction. Having anyone who tries to reveal the truth killed, while able to recruit traitorous comrades to his side and potentially get away scot-free, Goldstein will even resort to cold-blooded murder to ensure his plan succeeds.
    • Kowareyuku Machi to Kanojo no Uta: Ayami Hazuki and her older brother Keisuke Hikawa desire revenge on behalf of their mother. After finding out her mother died from shock via circulating rumors, Ayami launches a plan to kill those behind her dark past, with Keisuke teaming up with her to help ease her pain. Planning to have geologist Ishizawa kill Daigo Hazuki and Nobuteru Morita, when Hazuki and Morita tasked Keisuke to murder Ishizawa's daughter Keiko, Keisuke dated her until the two became engaged, whereupon he killed her and covered up her death as a suicide. When a series of disasters strike Central Island, Ayami poses as a hapless teenager to get survivors to assist her in killing Hazuki and Ishizawa, while Keisuke poses as a detective who tracks down and kills Morita in his own building. Able to overturn Ishizawa's attempts at killing her, Ayami saves Ishizawa from falling to his death after she regrets her actions, and is able to file a testimony against Hazuki, completing her and Keisuke's plan.
  • Ziggurat: Examiner Cepheus oversees "the Ziggurat", and is the final challenge the player faces. During his fight, Cepheus uses your own equipment and spells against you, as well as activating traps and summoning monsters to fight alongside him. Showing respect to the player upon being bested, Cepheus gives them the scroll used to join "the Brotherhood". Depending on the ending, Cepheus either: gives the player the scroll and grants them membership, with no repercussions; tricks a cheating player into exposing themselves in front of the members, resulting in exile; or—in the Bad Ending—tricks the player into summoning him and his fellow monsters out of the Ziggurat, followed by his men ambushing the Brotherhood and incapacitating them, with the implication that he's been manipulating them for years beforehand.

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